Full Journal, PDF, 17.1 megabytes

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Full Journal, PDF, 17.1 megabytes
March I April 2000
$4.95
The Journal of Washington Apple Pi, Ltd.
Not Lawrence's MacWorld _
5
Warner Brothers Scene
Preview _ _ _ __ _ __ 20
Font of Wisdom _ __ __ 21
Print Explosion _ _ _ _ _ 24
Keeping Your Digital Images
VAG Rounded Bold , Zapf Dingbats
Organized
27
PUPIL PIU!CING
WllU VDUYt Pll!CTllRO t'IUVIUI!' Ull
ITC Anna
Nikon CoolPix 950 _ ___ 30
8QU~
The •hort und F at llllto
Madrone
EXPRESSNET _ _ __ _ 38
fRuiTcAkE DisposAl
WE doN'T ASk, NEitltER sltould yo
Peignot Demi
CONTAINER Ina
Russell Square
Learning to Network with the
Air Port
42
Linux on Virtual PC _ _ __ 44
DoubleClick _ _ _ _ _ 78
Surfer Beware 111 _____ 61
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Marc h I April 2000
Washington Apple Pi Journa l
Postal lnformaHon
Volume 22
March I April 2000
Club News
WAP Hotline ............................... 47, 50
WAP Calendar ............................ 48, 49
Index to Advertisers ........................ 81
TCS Help Sheet ................................ 51
Tutorials ............................................ 67
Tutorial Form .................................... 74
Classified Advertisements .............. 95
WAP Membership Form ................. 96
SIGs and Slices
Genealogy SIG Meeting .................. 14
Graphic Arts SIG January Meeting17
General Interest
Not Lawrence's MacWorld ............... 5
by Lorin Evans
BOD December Meeting Notes ....... 8
BOD January Meeting Notes ........... 8
January General Meeting Report ..... 9
by Steven Kiepe
In Memoriam-Harold Herman
Greene ............................................... 11
by Lorin Evans
Counterpoint (response to "Beyond .
th.e Pail") ........................................... 12
Warner Brothers Scene Preview
Technical Paper Review .................. 20
by Stuart Bonwit
Font of Wisdom ................................ 21
by Lawrence I. Charters
Cartoon, Charles Stancil ................. 23
Number2
MacTicker Reviewed ....................... 35
by Lawrence I. Charters
EXPRESSNET, High Speed Web Access
Through Cable TV Montgomery .... 38
by Joe Belotte
Click City: The Good, the Weird and
th.e Vague But True .......................... 40
Learning to Network with the
Airport ............................................... 42
by Edgar Durbin
Because It's There: Linux on Virtual
PC ....................................................... 44
by Washington Apple Pi Labs
Best of th.e TCS ................................. 52
compiled by John Ludwigson
Surfer Beware III: Privacy Policies
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by Electronic Privacy Info. Center
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Deadlines
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compiled by Bonnie Ashbaugh
AppleWorks vs. AppleWorks ......... 91
by Matth.ew Pearce
May I June ........................ Mar. 20
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Apple's Tech Exchange iMac Website:
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Maclnterface-The Cool Way To Get
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by Barbara Passman
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Explosion ............................................ 24
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Icon Gulde
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Pictures .............................................. 30
by John Barnes
That WOW Thing You Do .............. 33
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Toys of Tokyo ................................... 79
byMWJ
Pi Fillings v. 6, contents ................... 81
Nova Development's Print
Keeping Your Digital Images
Organized ........................................... 27
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March I April 2000
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4 Washington Apple Pi Journal
March I April 2000
Not Lawrence's MacWorld
I
F YOU FOLLOW the financial
numbers for Apple you know that
Steve Jobs and his management
team have undone much of what was
crippling the company. He found
good people looking for someone to
point the way, marshaled the
company's assets, and made things
happen for Apple. Steve found a
vastly improved manufacturing and
inventory management infrastructure
which he put to good use. He
changed advertising agencies along
with the tone and theme of the corporate message. The rest you know.
Now, Apple has time to look
around at the odds and ends that escaped the initial housecleaning and
address some corporate orphans that
are still wandering around the campus. My favorite orphan, and the reason for this column, are the very real
problems of the thousands of Displaced Apple Persons (OAP) on this
p lanet who own a Macintosh. These
DAPs are hungry for two things: (1)
March I April 2000
new DAPs need a support structure
to help them with their new iThing;
and (2) the existing base of owners
needs something warm and fuzzy to
which they can relate when their Macs
give them the cold shoulder. Apple
needs to find a way to accommodate
these needs without spending an inordinate amount of money.
I believe Apple's " business
model" in place today to provide that
support reflects an ambiv alence
within senior management. This is not
a bottom up story where I bemoan the
paucity of user group support to
Macintosh owners. This is a top down
story wherein I make the case that
only a change in the attitude of senior
management at Apple will undo the
sorry state of its after sales support. I
believe there are people at Apple who
are aware of how much more effective support could be under a different model from the one used today.
Come with me and I will show you.
Apple has to make a decision as
to whether it is a product company
(buy something that requires negligible tech or warranty support, use it
until it drops and return to the market for another) or a consumer company (in which case there is an obligation for more hands-on contact and
after market support-or there won't
be another sale to these folks.) Obviously, I see Apple as the latter with
follow-on obligations. I don't see
Apple as being of one mind on this
critical question-which may help explain why Apple is so inconsistent in
its support for owners.
A look at the data that is collected
in Cupertino about new owners reveals that many of the folks buying
iThings are not the Twenty-something
people folklore would have us believe
are the majority of the purchasers. It
also turns out that when Mr. and Ms.
America walk out of a retail store with
their iDevice, they walk out alone. I'll
elaborate in a minute. The impression
fostered by the marketing and advertising departments that the only difference between an iMac and a toaster
is the size of the openings on the top
is proving to be illusory to these new
owners. You and I know the toaster
analogy is rubbish; now new owners
also know it. There isn't a bootable
interactive tutorial CD or even a gen-
Washington Apple Pi Journal 5
re
eral purpose instruction booklet in
the iBox for the literate to peruse.
Even toasters have some printed instructions.
Welcome Home iMac
Mr. and Ms. America arrive home
with their shiny new iThing. The
family believes that it bought the
right box and, by extension, attached
themselves to a user friendly company. But that "friendly" company
has no one near this family to provide the most mundane assistance.
The dealer either is long distance or
finds that basic hand-holding eats
prodigious amounts of time-which
it does. They are now alone with
their purchase. If only they had purchased a PC, mom or dad could take
it in to work and have the company
IT tell them what to do, or fix it. The
reservoir of good will begins to leak.
Well, my resourceful family has
found a not-so-cheap source of support. The closest thing there is to an
Apple "safety net" is for the family
to call 800/500-7078. There used to
be local dealers, but you already
know that story. That safety net is
there for at least one year on a new
iProd uct. Calling the 800 number is
good for anything from the most
mundane questions to explaining
why smoke is rising from inside their
new iDevice. Apple is getting lots of
calls; like how to connect the keyboard, and where in the box is the
desktop. It is the stuff you would expect to learn in our "Introduction to
the Mac" classes. Decent bucks and
lots of hours are being expended in
Austin, Texas (the home of tech support) to answer these new owners.
Apple even brought technical support back inside the company in order to improve the quality of that
support. Now, when you call, you are
talking to a real Apple employee.
But, a call to find the desktop costs
about as much as one that concludes
the hard drive has died.
There is no discount to Apple because those teletechs work directly
6 Washington Apple Pi Journal
for the company. It takes training to
help them become competent to answer a question. That training is further complicated by the reality that
new owners are more likely than not
to be older and first time owners of a
computer, or cross-overs from the
dark-side of computing with all that
bizarre reasoning to unlearn. It is turning out to be expensive to service these
callers- to provide the after sales support a progressive consumer products
company needs to offer if it wants to
build customer loyalty. And, in case
you are wondering where Apple fits
"A look at the data that
is collected in
Cupertino about new
owners reveals that
many of the folks
buying iThings are not
the Twenty-something
people folklore would
have us believe are the
majority of the purchasers. It also turns out
that when Mr. and Ms.
America walk out of a
retail store with their
iDevice, they walk
out alone."
in customer satisfaction, look at the
September, 1999 issue of Consumer
Reports. Apple didn't do so well. Corporate representatives claim to want
to become Number One in a couple of
years. So, what kind of tools is Apple
going to have to bring to bear to make
this promise come true? All of them.
Apple, Inc. is like an orchestra. It
can play "chopsticks" or Chopin. No
management in these lean-mean times
can afford to disregard a major component of its orchestra. If it does, the
price to be paid by the other instruments will not be insignificant. Given
where I sit, I am particularly interested
in the section of the orchestra where
the user group instruments are located. Those tools are being misused
at best; more often are not even in the
equation. The orchestra leaders at
Apple do not trust us; I once used the
term margainalized to describe it.
Surely there are examples of consumer industries that have a positive
relationship with their customers that
could serve as a model for Apple to
consider. After all, ~s far as I, and too
many others are concerned, the current paradigm at Apple for corporate/ consumer relations might be
described as bipolar. You are going
to have a hard time convincing me
that existing owners of Macintosh
computers are not fertile ground from
which to obtain grass-roots assistance
for new Mac owners vice some pricey
800 technical support line.
Are You A Ford?
So I hoofed it off to visit some of
the local Volvo dealers in the greater
Washington, DC area to talk to them
about their relations with customers.
Wow, I could not believe what I saw
and heard. Volvo wants you to be
pleased with your purchase and to
buy another one some day. Clearly
Volvo and its dealers see value in
maintaining a positive relationship
with you after the sale, and the Volvo
car club is part of that picture. One of
the dealers suggested I go visit a
Harley-Davidson store and learn
about Harley Owner's Groups
(HOGS). I was about to experience a
completely different dynamics from
the dysfunctional one in which we
exist.
VislHng The Byteless
Just look at typical H-D showroom; this isn't what your dad remembers fondly. New and used
sales, service, accessories and clothing in a wide, spacious and inviting
atmosphere. Existing owners are as
welcome in the store to browse and
smooze as a newbie. And, should
you buy a bike, you do not ride out of
March I April 2000
rr
the dealership alone! You are given a
one-year membership in the corporate Harley Owners Group (HOG).
Most dealers sponsor a local chapter
which you are encouraged to join. You
are [pardon the expression] considered family and treated as such. After the sale, a relationship begins in
which at least two parties, H-D and
the dealer have clear incentives to see
nurtured. The growth in that relationship is propelled by the corporate office responsible for owner group relations which is not a part of the company tasked with selling bikes.
H-D provides incentives to the
dealer to maintain that relationship,
and the dealer has its own incentives
to add to those so as to keep the customer and the owners group healthy
and functional. The Owner's Group
is a separate entity within the company with its own measure of valueadded creativeness to bring to the
Harley bottom line. What a contrast
to what we endure! It can't be that
only user groups can see this mix:
state-of-the-art computers, peripherals and complimenting accessories in
an attractive retail setting, coupled
with a user group community encouraged to support Apple and its retailers for the mutual benefits all derive.
Just to be clear on one thing: I am
not advocating that Apple create a
national Macintosh Users Group. I
want, instead, to focus on the most
basic difference between Volvo and
Harley-Davidson on the one hand
and Apple on the other. In two of the
three, there is a realization by senior
management that these companies
are consumer companies; there is no
ambivalence! Once you buy their
product, you are [again, forgive me]
family. Look at the corporate charter
for the office charged with responsibility for consumer rapport: is it selling more product [Apple], or to involve the already sold into the community of owners [H-D and Volvo]?
I don't own a Harley and have no
plans to purchase one. But, the infectious enthusiasm that radiated from
March I April 2000
the Harley owners with whom I met
to discuss their relationship with
Harley-Davidson and their dealer has
NO parallel, nothing comparable
what-so-ever, within Apple Computer, Inc.
The difference between the way
Harley or Volvo treats an owner and
that of Apple is so different as to call
into question someone's business
model. I don't want to hear that automobiles, motorcycles and computers require different treatments for
their owners -that's happy crap.
And don't give me some jazz about it
being the fault of the user group. You
happen to belong to a very functional
group. Our relations with you and
with our regional dealers is similar to
the H-D and Volvo models.
When you call Washington Apple
Pi during office hours, a real human
answers the phone. We produce CDs
and classes for you and offer them to
other user groups at a serious discount. Our monthly meetings and
garage sales are family affairs. Our
relationship begins when your plastic
clears. It is fulfilled when you say
"Thanks" for something we did for
you or when we can say "Thanks" to
you for something you did for another
member of the Mac comm unity,
whether or not that person is a Pi
member. It is the look on the faces of
school kids who are on the receiving
end of one our refurbished computer
donations. Contrast that with what I
found when I visited with several
groups while traveling on the West
Coast. Sure there is a difference in
scale; but that is not the measure that
leaves me shaking. Their survival
model is akin to what probably saved
the small town of Oberammergau
from the plague in 1633. The Cloisters established during the so called
"Dark Ages" fit that model equally
well.
So, I vote for a top down change
in the relationship among Apple, its
customers and the too few functioning user groups left out here. There is
a synergy to be found in harnessing
"The difference between
the way Harley or
Volvo treats an owner
and that of Apple is so
different ... "
the pieces that collectively are: post
sales support, user groups, and the
new boutique stores [that "may"
come to be] that should not be discounted. In plain English, anyone
proposing anything short of this is
rearranging those famous deck chairs
or about to apply Bondo to a rusting
fender. The attitude that radiates from
corporate Apple concerning its customer base and the few organizations
that are trying to hold that base together is antithetical to any kind of a
bottom up restructuring. Arrogance is
what it reflects and ignorance is what
it masks. Apple, Inc. is neither rich
enough, nor so in control of its market share, as to afford to maintain its
palpable disdain for customers.
Holistic Music
Earlier I described Apple as an orchestra. Right now, the conductors
seem oblivious of the discordant notes
and out-of-tune instruments found in
the retail, support, and user group
sections of that orchestra. The result
is some sections of the Apple Orchestra working harder to overcome the
limitations placed on others. But,
there are some new managers within
Apple who, if given the charter, can
take this out-of-tune problem to a new
home, to a place where a different
value structure is used to measure
worth. In such a setting the synergy
to Apple from developing a new mix
of retail shops, national service and
support, and user groups providing
grass roots assistance should be obvious. A more functional cross-cultural relationship will be fostered, the
Fat Lady will sing, and I can find a
new topic on which to write. Forget
a coat of paint.
-Lorin
Washington Apple Pi Journal 7
TC
Board of Directors Notes
December 8, 1999 Meeting
[Note: these are not the full minutes
of the Board of Directors; those may
be found on the Washington Apple Pi
bulletin board, the TCS, in File Transfer Area 5.]
Directors Present: Lawrence Charters, John Barnes, Dave Ottalini, Brian
Mason, Dave Weikert, Don Essick,
Steve Kiepe, David Harris, Dale
Smith, Mary Keene, Pat Fauquet, Lou
Dunham, Lorin Evans
Directors Absent: none
HE BOARD
was productively engaged in brochure folding until the meeting was called
to order at 7:50 p.m. Then they continued to fold some more. The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted without much in the way of
comment beyond a grunt or two, and
the gentle rustle of paper.
Old Business
There was an extended discussion of how to define the job of Washington Apple Pi office manager, and
what characteristics we want in the
person who fills this role. Narrowly
defined, the office manager follows
established procedures to process
membership applications, renewals,
and inquiries; handles "retail" sales
of club materials; conducts routine
bank transactions, and similar clerical and office management functions.
In reality, the current office manager
does much, much more.
In listing "musts" for the office
manager, the Board came up with lots
of them. A suggestion that the office
8 Washington Apple Pi Journal
manager also be trustworthy, loyal,
helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean
and reverent was met with general
approval until someone pointed out
this was the Boy Scout Law. This was
followed by a brief discussion on
whether this was also the Girl Scout
Law. President Lorin Evans concluded the subject was being beat to
death, so the conversation turned to ...
The December Garage Sale is this
Saturday, and all Board members are
strongly encouraged to attend and
help out. Based on the number of
phone calls and a flood of hits on the
Web site, the event should be well attended.
Steve Kiepe moved that the meeting be adjourned, with a second by
Dale Smith. The fleeing horde approved the idea at 8:59 p.m. •
Board of Directors Notes
January 12, 2000 Meeting
[Note: the Board had not approved the
minutes of this meeting as of this writing. Full minutes of the Board of Directors meetings may be found on the Washington Apple Pi bulletin board, the TCS,
in File Transfer Area 5.]
Directors Present: Lawrence Charters, John Barnes, Brian Mason, Pat
Fauquet, Dale Smith, Lou Dunham,
David Harris, Don Essick, Steven
Kiepe, Mary Keene, Lorin Evans,
Dave Ottalini
Directors Absent: Dave Weikert
AN unusual use of the third
erson, President Lorin Evans pro
claimed, "Painfully late, he calls
the meeting to order," at 7:58 p.m.
Lorin excused his tardiness by explaining that he was still on West
Coast time, having just arrived from
BWI and MacWorld San Francisco.
The minutes were approved via the
usual lack of complaint.
Old Business
The Board looked at the results of
the December Garage Sale. In particu-
lar, the Garage Sale was compared
with results of three prior sales. There
were two items of particular note: (1)
winter events tend to generate more
participation (from members and visitors) than summer events [barring
extreme weather]; and (2) expenses
have skyrocketed as volunteer help
has declined. One thing that hasn' t
changed is the enthusiasm and appreciation of the membership for the
Garage Sale.
Given these findings, combined
with projected staffing changes, the
future of the Garage Sale requires far
more volunteer effort. While volunteers for the event are plentiful, a
standing committee should do the
planning and coordination of the
event, not the single-person Pi staff.
More attention should be paid to finding inexpensive venues, planning and
staffing complimentary activities,
finding less expensive furnishings,
collecting donated items for door
prizes, coordinating and creating advertising, and in general performing
useful work.
By the close of the next Board
March I April 2000
TC
meeting, the Board must approve the
electio~ rule~ and timeline of the May
2.000 P1 election, and appoint an Elect10n Committee and Election Challenge Committee.
New Business
Lorin Evans and Pat Fauquet both
attended MacWorld San Francisco.
Lorin and Pat described an event attended by 85,000 happy Mac users
over four days, filled with lots of new
exciting products and services.
'
After spending several hours
with Apple officials at several events
Lorin came away with the impressio~
that Apple has next to no interest in
user groups. As he put it, they see user
groups as increasingly irrelevant, providing nothing of value to Apple's
bottom line.
. Lorin also talked about changes
m Apple support policies. After suffering withering criticism in the press
for their poor telephone support, they
talked about scrapping the current
system and revamping it with a centr.alized support facility with much
higher .visibility within the company.
Apple is also planning on selling CDROM-based training on servicing
Macs, with a Kaplan-style test forcertification. Notably, certification will
mean you are"certified" to work with
Macs, but not "authorized," authorized service will still be restricted to
businesses with Apple contracts for
sales and service.
Pat agreed with much of what
Lorin said, but emphasized new programs, new hardware and new services. She was impressed with the
bustling, enthusiastic crowds of
MacWorld San Francisco, simultaneously more laid back but more fired
up than the MacWorld New York
crowd. She reported that the enthusiasm wasn't limited to just show visitors; all the vendors seemed equally
ecstatic.
The meeting was adjourned at
9:23 p.m. •
March I April 2000
January General
Meeting Notes
By Steven Kiepe, Vice Presidents
for Macintosh Programs
C
OLD AND BITTER
winds, with high temperatures
below 30 degrees awaited our
visitors from Redmond, Washington
for the January general meeting. A
somewhat reduced size throng of
hearty individuals gathered this
frosty morning to preview the next
genera ti on of internet tools,
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5, and
Outlook Express 5. The crowd was well
rewarded for their willingness to venture into the cold and it appears that
a new "fastest gun" is about to debut
in the browser world.
Microsoft Macintosh Product
Managers Glenn Myers and Irving
Kwong blew into town on the heels
of a major cold front but brought
plenty of good cheer and more than a
f~w outstand~g door prizes. They
kicked off their presentation with a
rundown on Microsoft's recent announcements at MacWorld San Francisco. Of much interest to the crowd
was the acknowledgement that
Microsoft is working hard on the sequel to the highly lauded Office 98.
This still unnamed new version will
be .compatible with " legacy"
Macintosh operating systems includ-
Washington Apple Pi Journal 9
IT
.......
~
•... • ...ft....
• -" ,....•
,,.- ,;t.
ft
A..
...
~
....
-
_..,
--·
ing OS 9 and will be closely followed
by a OS X native version soon after
the latter makes its debut. More details on these new versions will be
posted on the Microsoft website, as
they become available.
The core of the meeting was focused on demonstrating Microsoft's
new internet tools, the recently released Outlook Express 5 and the
soon to be available Internet Explorer
1O Washington Apple Pi Journal
..
..
space bar and views can be set up to reveal only read, unread or
"threaded" messages (those that have been replied to or forwarded). A dynamic history is created between messages, revealing message threads and creating a link between them. The
resizable preview pane has most of the same features available
in the larger message viewing window including autotext
cleanup and font size adjustment (to get rid of the strange characters and out of alignment formatting that often result when
messages are captured and resent).
Not only is Outlook Express 5 a great email and news application, it also has a built in address book with multiple fields that
can be customized to hold extensive amounts of information on
each individual record. This data could include birthdays and
other major events, and up to 16 phone numbers and 13 email
addresses per record. The application is also smart enough to
only display the fields that have data
entered. While the program still lacks
some of the functionality of the Windows version of Microsoft Outlook, the
gap has been closed greatly.
The second application in this onetwo punch is Internet Explorer 5, to be
released in late February or early
March. It looks like a sure winner and
even Netscape diehards came away
impressed. With an extremely
customizable interface, it can be configured to display web pages at the
Windows standard 96 dot per inch
(dpi) display or the Macintosh's default 72 dpi. This feature ensures that
web pages optimized for Windows
and using small fonts will still be legible on the Mac. Additionally, the improved rendering engine significantly
accelerates the speed at which web
pages are displayed on the
Macintosh.
Many specialized functions are
built into Internet Explorer 5. An intelligent search function accesses
multiple search engines. There is a
5 for Macintosh.
print preview feature to ensure that
Users of older versions of Outlook
the web page you want is what you'll
Express will be very comfortable with
actually print. There is even a built-in
the with the latest version's interface.
auction tracker function for all of you
electronic auctioneer addicts!
Immediately noticeable are new button icons on the tool bar, designed by
After fielding more than two
hours of demonstra.tion and questhe Icon Factory. A new "flag" feations, it was time to start winding
ture allows the user to annotate mail
down the meeting. Glenn and Irving
of interest for later follow-up. Mesbrought a generous selection of prizes
sages can be scrolled through and sefor the raffle, and with odds better
quentially paged by depressing the
Marc h I April 2000
IT
In Memoriam
Harold Herman Greene
than 1 in 7 of coming away a winner, there were a lot
of happy people!
A large selection of reference manuals were
passed out including copies of Claris Works 5 Compendium to Clifton Bailey, Tom Culbert and Larry
Schwa rtz, PageMaker for Macintosh to Ken Clare,
Photoshop 5 to Bob Mulligan, and PageMaker 6.5 to William Hark. Quite a few folks ended up sporting
Microsoft Outlook Express T-shirts including Jamie
MacDonald, Rob Clark, Al Lubarsky, Ken Lutterman,
Jan Bailey and G. LeBon. The big winners of the
morning included Jim Diamond, winner of GDT's
PowerPrint USB, and three very lucky winners of
Microsoft Office Gold Edition for Macintosh: Charlie
Cooke, Ned Spencer and Ron Green.
Future general meeting topics:
February 26th - Asante on home and office networking, and 3dfx, developers of the new Voodoo 4 and 5
graphic acceleration cards.
March 25th - Corel will present Print Office, a blend
of page layout, office form and letter templates, and
general correspondence tools, and Derek Mihoka of
Gemulators, Inc will d emonstrate his amazing
Gemulator, a hardware and software solution that
allows Macintosh applications to be run on WINTEL
based machines.
April 22"d - Adobe In-Design, the new heavyweight champion in the desktop publishing arena .
•
Marc h I April 2000
In the January /February Journal, I wrote that the antitrust
action that split the American Telephone and Telegraph
Company into regional operating companies (Baby Bells)
and a different AT&T, was an important milestone in what
we today call the telecommunications revolution. If we did
not know it then; we sure do now. I wrote about the judge,
Harold Greene, who presided over both the antitrust case
and all the follow-on litigation that continued for years afterwards.
That case was not his life's work. Lawyer Harold Greene
was instrumental in the formulation of the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. He worked for vthen-Attorney General Robert Kennedy and is considered one of the principal
legal architects of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that helped redress serious societal
inequities in the United States. He was one of the first law yers to staff the new civil rights division of the Justice Department where he become head of the research and appeals division. President Johnson appointed him to the District of Columbia Superior Court in 1965. He rose to be its
chief judge. He became a much admired jurist and compassionate believer in due process. It was in his court that
the aftermath of the riots that broke out in Washington as a
reaction to the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther
King, Jr. played out. He insisted that each case brought before his court be heard individually. He was appointed by
President Carter to the U.S. District Court where one of the
first cases assigned to him was the antitrust action brought
by the Justice Department against AT&T.
Judge Greene said he found himself trying to reconcile
the position of Justice and AT&T. Justice argued that AT&T
was using the profits from its monopoly over local telephone
service to subsidize long-distance rates, thus suppressing
competition. AT&T and most of the public argued that Ma
Bell w as a model of efficient and dependable service for
which a break-up would bring about major market turmoil.
The trial absorbed 11 months of Greene's time. He is quoted
as once saying that the natural monopoly of telephone poles
and copper wire could not last in a microwave era. He retired from the bench in 1998.
Judge Greene passed away January 29 at his home in a
suburb of Washington, DC at the age of 76. He asked that
we remember him for the whole body of his judicial work
and not just the case involving AT&T. That is not a problem
for me.
-Lorin
Washington Apple Pi Journal 11
rr
Counterpoint
Dear Readers,
Typically I receive short notes from members commenting on articles in the
]our~al. ~st month, however, two items elicited strong comments: the articles concernm? "';!tcrosoft and the Dep~rtme~t ofJustice, and the President's column "Beyond
the Pazl. I offer for your conszderatzon a counterpoint to Lorin's column on the state
of Apple retailing.
-The Editor
D
EAR EDITOR,
I have just about calmed
down after reading the editorial in the January /February Journal
called "Beyond the Pail." If you are
interested, I have a few commentsas one Mac shareholder to another:
Lorin wrote in the part called
"Moo Juice":"Apple thinks their software updates are another untapped
cash cow." Hardly a flattering characterization, but yes Apple has decided to sell the Mac OS rather than
continuing to give it away. You still
get one free when you buy hardware,
but "significant releases" are documented, packaged and priced as if
they had some value (call them crazy}.
In the part called "Anatomy of a
Dying Breed," he wrote: "The network of independent retail stores selling Apple Computer equipment is a
shell of its former self. Apple undercut our local dealers in the 80's when
it refused to allow them to sell the
lower-cost Performa Mac computers
found in national chains." Revisionist history, at best. Were there
Performa models available only at the
national chains? Yes. Did Apple refuse
to allow "our local dealers" to sell
Performas? No.
Regardless, this is NOT the reason why the number of independent
retail stores selling Apple hardware
is "a shell of its former self'. In the
dark years at Apple when "market
share" was the holy grail of marketing, someone decided that the corre-
12 Washington Apple Pi Journal
lation between the percentage of computer stores authorized to sell Apple
and Apple's percentage of computers
sold was not just a coincidence, but
perhaps implied a relationship. This
"revelation" precipitated authorization of thousands of computer stores
to sell Apple-as well as the strategy
to authorize the national chains.
"It further complicated their lives
by the discount formula for them to
qualify for the lower prices Apple
charged national chains." Call me
crazy, but I don't know of any manufacturer of any product (hardware or
software} who doesn't set their wholesale price based on volume. Does this
mean that smaller stores pay higher
prices than Walmart and Sears? Absolutely. This is one reason smaller
stores grow (or merge} into larger
chains.
"Apple's Marketing Department
blew off the complaints; dealers either
walked or quit. The retail market for
the Macintosh has never been the
same." First, since I lived through that
era, I assure you that Apple did NOT
precipitate the evolution of the personal computer market - they did,
however anticipate it. For several
years, Apple told its dealers that they
should decide whether they wanted
to be high-volume or value-add dealers, and that trying to be both would
not be a viable model as the market
changed. We described trying to
straddle this divide as the "valley of
death". Not because Apple was creat-
ing this situation, but because the personal computer had reached a stage
where the people who knew how to
run "warehouse" type stores had become interested in this market.
Apple didn't create CompUSA,
WalMart, Frye's or any of the other
places where customers were beginning to buy personal computers. We
knew that the absence of Apple products in these high-visibility outlets
could further limit their ability to attract new customers. As you know,
convincing someone who is currently
using Windows (and has an investment in hardware, software. and
learning on that platform) to switch
to the Mac is significantly more difficult than convincing someone to consider a Mac as their first computer.
"Unsaid is that Apple is 'encouraging' its retailers to change from relying on retail sales to one where service, training and network installations and support provide the dollars
to keep the business alive." The only
computers currently being sold by
resellers that have large enough margins to support the old model where
the dealer made his profit on the hardware and "gave away" service and
support are no-name clone PCs. IBM,
Compaq, and HP (not to mention Dell
and Gateway) all have "razor thin"
margins.
IBM moved from a "bundled"
model for selling their mainframes to
an "unbundled" model where you
paid for support and service in 1970.
I know because I worked for IBM back
then. I have always told dealers that
they should rejoice when someone
buys their computer from the lowestcost alternative and then brings it to
them for support and service. These
are the highest-profit parts of the
dealer's business (no inventory, no
floorplan, no interest, no commissions).
What too few of them have
learned is that the "customer for life"
approach to selling works here just as
well as it does for automobiles. If you
March I April 2000
rr
focus on the customer, not the sale and
spend some of your marketing dollars on customer retention instead of
new customer acquisition, your customer base becomes one of your largest assets.
"Apple once offered what was
called price protection to a retail shop.
If Apple dropped the retail price on a
product, the dealer who had unopened stock could either return the
higher priced items for a credit, or
receive a credit on future purchases."
First, Apple does not set (or drop) retail prices. Apple sets the price at
which it sells to the distributor or
dealer. This price certainly influences
the retail price, but does not set it. As
for price protection, most hard-goods
manufacturers have some type of
price protection. This is a requirement
if you want your dealers to stock inventory. The down-side to having a
multi-tier distribution model is that
when you introduce new models, the
value of this inventory is instantly less
(sometimes significantly).
There are two choices for the
manufacturer: take back the inventory
and redistribute it (adding 2x shipping cost to the cost of goods sold AND probably reducing the wholesale price to move the now less-thancurrent hardware); or give the dealer
holding the inventory some credit
(also reducing the cost of goods sold)
to allow him to sell the product at a
lower price.
In today's economy most hardware manufacturers have recognized
this as a highly inefficient procedure
which also wreaks havoc on their
financials. Especially when product
cycles are shorter than ever and the
speed of Apple's distribution system
is better than ever. In a perfect world,
the dealer should have only one day
of inventory (whatever that is for him)
on hand. This reduces his overhead
AND the amount of inventory "in the
channel".
"There is a strong belief in the retail community that Apple is devel-
March I April 2000
oping a company-owned chain of retail stores, modeled after the ones they
operate in Australia." Check your
facts. Apple doesn't "own" these
stores. What Apple has done is to
work with locals to create an "Applebranded" retail chain. This has been
done largely in countries where their
entry into existing (if any) computer
stores was considered nearly impossible.
The plan presented to Apple dealers, VARs and Solution Experts at
their recent meeting in San Francisco
will encourage dealers to embrace a
new standard of retail branding (including signage, display and merchandising) which will be supported
by the Apple Corporate efforts to
build the brand.
"Fortunately, there is a strong nation-wide supply of parts to support
these new orphans and knowledge on
how to repair them." Really? These
machines are "orphans" only in the
sense that Apple has decided that they
cannot be included in an AppleCare
contract. Apple, like all manufacturers, is required by law to stock service
parts for machines "during their useful life". This means that this nationwide supply of parts is in fact maintained by Apple. AppleCare is like
insurance: Apple is betting that the
average cost of machine repairs will
not exceed the cost of AppleCare; the
AppleCare purchaser is betting that
the machine will require more repairs.
The older the hardware, the higher
the risk - also, the larger the pool of
insured, the lower the risk.
"How does the dealer establish a
relationship with you for support if
the computer is serviced directly by
Apple?" The same way he does if the
computer is manufactured by Apple:
by facilitating the transaction - as a
customer service. This is NOT a trend.
The only products treated this way are
PowerBooks and iBooks. Have you
ever been inside one of these? Apple's
reasoning is that portable systems are
difficult to repair - and their rapid re-
pair is arguably more important to the
customer than typical desktop systems. The goal is better customer satisfaction - and faster attention to potential problems which might need
engineering changes.
"You, the person looking for a
new computer are attracted by the
lower national's price, blow off their
crappy service knowing that you can
go to the local independent, but won't
give him the retail sales business to
save a nickel. Good reasoning. What
is the message from your decision for
independents?" Well-said. Apple is
doing everything they can to make
the users' experience as good as possible. From the design of the user interface to the availability of machines
to the attention to quality of service
provided by Apple dealers. Apple
doesn't decide what is important to
the customer - the customer decides
by his willingness to pay for it. Apple
depends on customer feedback to
understand what these things are.
Based on the last two years, Steve
has demonstrated an uncanny understanding of what is important to
Apple customers. He has made some
unpopular decisions and effectively
"fired" some of Apple's customers·as
well as some of their resellers and distributors.
Hard to argue with the results,
however: Apple is in better shape financially than any time in the last 5
years; the Macintosh product line is
once again viewed as innovative and
"leading edge design"; the iMac and
iBook are bringing significant new
users to the platform; developers are
returning with excitement; Apple
stock (remember that I started this as
a message from one shareholder to
another) hit an all-time high this
week.
Being a computer dealer is a very
difficult occupation. I am intimately
acquainted with the problems they
face. It must not be an impossible task,
since so many people choose it. There
are still a number of Apple-only deal-
Washington Apple Pi Journal 13
IT
ers - who are much happier today
than two years ago. I would not presume to tell one of them how to run
his business - and hope they won't tell
me how to run mine.
For the 5 years I was in private
practice as a consultant, I declined
every opportunity to make money on
the sale of software or hardware - believing that it represented a confli~t
of interests, since my customers paid
me consulting fees to recommend,
install and maintain their hardware
and software. Many of the consultants
I work with today have this same
opinion.
When I purchase hardware and
software for personal use, I use all
available resources to make an informed choice, pay the lowest price
and attain the earliest possible delivery. Sometimes this means overnight
delivery from a web or catalog dealer.
Many times it means patronizing my
local stores.
Who gives me more "customer
satisfaction"? Since all these sources
are focused only on price and availability, it varys from one occ~ion to
another. Interestingly, I get email from
MacZone, Amazon and Garden.com
recommending new purchases and
highlighting special offers! When I
visit Amazon.com, they "recognize"
me and make suggestions based on
my previous purchases! Isn't it interesting that none of my local stores
seem to be looking beyond the sale? I
receive "flyers", but nothing specifically addressing my interests.
Thanks for reading- I wanted you
to know that I do read your editorials, even though I seldom respond
like this (probably just as well).
[name withheld by request]
14 Washington Apple Pl Journal
Minutes, Genealogy SIG,
11Jan2000
THE MEETING
convened at the
scheduled
time, 10 AM,
on January
eleventh, in
the
WAP
classroom with six members present.
Ed Jordan announced that he and
Mary are expecting to move to a retirement community in Kennett
Square, PA, right alongside of
Longwood Gardens. They will have
three months to move after a suitable
place is offered. Many of the duties
he now performs for the SIG will have
to be taken on by other members if
the SIG is to continue. Ed pointed out
that the Pi Directors, the Journal Editor and Beth at the WAP office need a
single point of contact, or possibly cochairs, for all SIG matters including
scheduling a meeting place, publication of the minutes in the Journal and
responding to general inquiries. The
Genealogy SIG should also continue
to have a name or names listed under
'SIG Chairs' in the Journal.
Karen Kyte passed around two
copies of magazines she picked up at
Borders Books: 'Family History
Monthly' and 'Family Chronicle' from
England. The latter has an article on
using computers in its Jan-Feb issue.
In a journal or magazine on New
England genealogy there was ~.ad
for a CD set containing three million
names of immigrants from 1538 to
1940 showing all the source information.' Unfortunately, one cannot find
all of the sources, and many ports of
arrival are not covered for all years.
There was discussion of whether a
few members should share the $60.00
cost of this set. Alex Maish noted that
"Ed Jordan announc~d that
he and Mary are expecting
to move ....They will have
three months to move after
a suitable place is offered.
Many of the duties he now
performs for the SIG will
have to be taken on by other
members if the SIG is to
continue. "
last year he was show~ photocop!es
of immigrant ship manifests for ships
arriving in Philadelphia in the 1700s.
Comparing the handwriting of the
passengers, he could see that an ancestor had arrived twice, two years
apart. He was told that many immigrants, once settled ~own, ~eturned
to their home countnes to brmg back
fiancees or wives and friends.
The general discussion moved on
to the PC application Family Tree
Maker as an important resource. Although not Mac compatible, it can.be
accessed through Virtual PC, which
now costs $170.00. It has many comprehensive CDs of names compiled
from public records. They usually lack
details and sources, and ;many of the
references are unpublished. Another
good resource is a magazine which
costs $50.00 per year available from
www.Ancestry.com.
Ed Jordan was in England in 1997
with a group of cousins looking at old
church records held by Shire Record
Offices. He found the English to be
very helpful, and the group was able
to request photocopies of original
records, including wills, that had not
yet been microfilmed. On a separate
trip to Eastern Maine he found a
tombstone with the names of a man's
two wives. In researching an ancestor named Buker, which turned out
to be Bowker, he was planning to re-
March I April 2000
rr
view land records to determine who
were the abutters to land owned by
his ancestor. Another attendee's FBI
friend helped him when the number
of land record leads got to be too large.
The friend systematically eliminated
most of the leads, selecting the most
improbable ones, and removing them.11 HE GENEALOGY SIG meets regularly on the second Tuesday
A new member, Halle Cauthen,
every month except July and August. All meetings are held from 10:00 AM
who works in video public access, has
to approximately noon in the Tutorial Room at the Pi Office in Rockville.
Topics and agendas are announced ahead of time whenever possible on
found that the Census is not as reliable as he had hoped. At first, he asthe Pi electronic calendars posted on the TCS and the Explorer Service. They
sumed that if a fact was written down
are also published in the Pi Journal when time permits .
it was correct. Then, in looking for
Evening or weekend meetings of the SIG have been suggested by some. A
volunteer is needed to initiate such meetings.
facts about a great grandfather, he
found where the first names of a father and his son were reversed. He
SIG Topics and Agendas
later got a name and a birth date for
Prior meetings have covered such topics as the use of U.S. Census records
his ancestor, but the birth date was a
for genealogical research, Civil War military and pension records, demonstrawild guess made at the time of death.
tion of members' favorite Internet sites for genealogy research, research at the
He also learned that the name being
DAR Library, resources of the Kensington LDS Family History Center, services
researched, Doss, was a nickname
and materials of the National Genealogical Society Library, and a presentation
used so extensively that few of his
by Frank Leister whose company created and produces the genealogy softcontemporaries knew that his legal
ware "Reunion."
name was Dawson. Halle has found
Other meetings have been devoted to informal discussions of the use of
that trying to find maiden names is
the TCS, scanners and topics of concern to attendees, including discussion of
difficult. Using the web site
members' experience with "Reunion" and other genealogical software.
'www.myancestors.com,' he posted
The SIG topics have covered both how to do genealogy research and how
the facts about an illegitimate wife
to use computers in such research. By general agreement more emphasis is
and mother and got a flock of E-mails
currently being placed on using Macintosh computers to record genealogical
in return. When he found incompatdata as opposed to seeking genealogical information through computer sources.
ible dates in a handwritten record, he
Special emphasis is placed on "Reunion" since it is the most widely used softused Photoshop to enlarge the image
ware by SIG members.
of a handwritten date until he could
see the correct date.
Bulletin Board
Frank Leister, the author of the
Conference 2, Board 12, on the TCS was established as the Pi Genealogy
popular application 'Reunion for
Board at the request of the SIG.
Macintosh,' has indicated that he
would return to speak to us again if
Upcoming Agendas
Besides general discussion, a presentation on scanners and genealogy is
asked. Ed Jordan suggested that whoever wanted to work on some future
planned, and hopefully, Frank Lesiter will return in the spring •
agendas invite him for a date in the
spring which would make Frank
Leister's attendance just a year after
Upcoming Meetings
his first visit to the Genealogy SIG.
March Meeting
"The Use Of a Personal Web Page In Genealogy Research" will be the priSubmitted by Alex Maish
mary topic.
A new SIG member who has successfully used this technique will lead off
the discussion.
Genealogy Schedule
April Meeting
To Be Announced: see the Pi electronic calendar and the Genealogy Board
on the TCS on Conference 2, Board 12.
March I April 2000
Washington Apple Pl Journal 15
Everyone
.
has an opinion
ANYONE
. can express an opinion
Nolb oJ y
cares about your opinion unless yoll $Ct
rrrthe Washington Apple Pi May 2000 electlon ,
Volunteer
to run Pi activities
new Pi activities and services
16 Washington Apple Pi Journal
March I April 2000
IT
Graphic Arts SIG Report,
January Meeting
SlideShoWJi
PRINTl~G
011 OCMAtJO
by Blake Lange
H
AVING TAKEN a break in
December we met in January
where I made a presentation on
Adobe Acrobat, a program I have
been s tudying lately.
I started out my presentation by
showing off PDF files I had done of
the National Voter Registration Act
(NVRA) form . One was prepared for
citizens to print on their laser printers. The second was prepared for
prepress use. It is going to be made
available to professional printers
around the country in the near future.
The file contains pages for each spot
color. The pages are extra large to
make room for crop marks. Because
the NVRA now requires universities
to give out this form we at the FEC
had to have a way of getting it to hundreds of printers at low cost. This
need is the reason I have explored the
capabilities of Adobe Acrobat.
Rather than try to report on w hat
I said at the meeting in this story I w ill
just discuss some of the highlights of
the program.
Acrobat files serve many purposes. The portable document format
(pdf) was developed by Adobe as a
way of s haring files with others even
though they may not have the same
program or even the same type of
computer. Now, in addition to republishing documents developed for
print, Acrobat is used for publishing
documents on the web and on CDROM that will never be printed. It is
also an inexpensive way of making
design projects available for review
during the production process. It is
March I April 2000
the ideal form for prepress for some
projects.
With the expansion of purpose
has also come an expansion of features. Originally created with the intent of making electronic documents
available
retaining
all
the
wn ng. u co or rapping, an essen ra s ep m
graphic
high quality print production has remained a
design of
mystery to most computer
the origiusers. Built into the
nal, pdf
PostScript language are
files now
the tools needed to create
can
be
printed color separations
much
(such as those used in
more indciktop presentations).
teractive
Add to this the introducwith the
rEUPfCJllE tion of the Display
u s e r .
There are
1su TRAPPING, PC. 41
e
buttons,
annotations ,
bookmark s,
sounds,
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Washington Apple Pi Journal 17
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movies, roll-overs, scripting, forms,
and links. Although an Acrobat plugin can work with your favorite web
browser, pdf files can be a
hypermedia in their own right with
much quicker response than web
pages.
The ability to create hyper jumps
from any p lace on any page to any
other place on any other page, or to
an o ther document, or even to the
web, leads to a new way to present
subjects. Before topics would be organized using a linear outline. Now
topics can branch hierarchically.
The branching method lends itself
particularly to improving on-screen
viewing. So brochures and booklets
moved to the computer can be enhanced through reorganizing the way
material is presented.
Attending the meeting were
Blake Lange, Sy Deitchman, Linden
Tucker Bell, Rich Schmidt, S. Mason,
Diana Buell, Sonny Tohan, Helen
Dilley Barsalou, Virginia Sheard,
Harald Holland, Ann Lesnik, Arthur
Holland, Etana Finkler, Laura Leigh
V. Palmer, Rob Kleinsteuber, Ed
Goldstein, Bobbi Simmons, and
Michael Oliwa. •
18 Washington Apple Pi Journal
Schedule
The s chedule
for the Graphic
Arts SIG over the
next
several
months is Saturdays March 11,
April 8, and May
13. Each meeting
will be from
lO:OOam to Noon.
The rule of thumb,
in case you want to
figure out when
there will be a
meeting, is that the
meetings are scheduled the second Saturda y of each
month except when
the Was hing ton
Apple Pi has a major activity scheduled for that day.
Directions
Mac Business Solutions is located at
9057 Gaither Road, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20877. The phone number is 301330-4074. From Interstate 270 and Shady Grove Road go East two lights, make
a left onto Gaither Road, then almost immediately turn into the second entrance on the right. From the Shady Grove Metro stop it is just a short taxi ride.
Marc h I April 2000
rr
Washington Apple Pi
Computer Sttmlller €atnp
Washington Apple Pi Computer Summer Camp 2000
When: The Summer Camp is a two week computer camp for teenagers. The
session will be held from Monday, July 24 through August 4. Camp is from
9:00 a.m. till 5:00 p.m. (Monday -Friday)
Lunch each day will be from Noon till 12:45 p.m. Students are responsible for bringing their own lunch
or bringing money to purchase lunch from a delivery restaurant.
Fees: $300.00 for each week of camp, or $600.00 for each two week session of camp
To Register: write to Pat Fauquet ([email protected])
Short Overview: This is a hands-on, technobabble-lite camp. Each camper will:
t'c Brush-up on Macintosh skills
t'c Master advanced user techniques
t'c Learn to use video, sound, graphic equipment and related applications
t'c Master applications for developing web pages
t'c Design, build, and manage an appealing personal page on the Internet
t'c Learn Sherlock search technology for home and school use
t'c Learn how to network computers
t'c Learn to operate a Macintosh in a multi-platform environment
The final web page design will be posted to the Washington Apple Pi web site for 30 days so everyone
can see what you have created.
Commercial applications that will be used during the session:
t'c Macintosh Operating System 9
t'c AppleWorks
t'c Adobe PhotoDeluxe
t'c Adobe PageMill
t'c Adobe Photoshop
t'c QuickTime 4.0
t'c Claris Home Page 3.0
t'c Adobe GoLive 4.0
t'c MovieWorks
t'c Netscape Navigator
t'c Internet Explorer
Summary: This is a great camp for any teen who wants to really make the family Macintosh work at
home, school, and on the Internet. It is an intensive, fun-paced course that is packed with information
presented in as non-technical a fashion as possible. When you are done with the WAP Summer Camp,
you will be able to take on almost any computer-related project with confidence and succeed - maybe,
even get better grades!
March I April 2000
Washington Apple Pi Journal 19
rr
Warner Brothers Scene Preview
Technical Paper Review
by Stuart Bonwit
~HE SMPTE (Society
of Mo~on Picture and Television Engineers) Journal for October 1999
has a fascinating piece entitled
"Implementation of Intranet Scene
Preview for Feature Animation," by
Leonard J. Reder and Gene Takahashi.
It describes a system with which every member of the team producing a
feature animation from top management down to the lowliest
inbetweener can have access to review any scene in the feature in its latest stage of development. The scenes
are stored as QuickTime video clips
and are available through a Netscape
browser on the Warner Bros. Intranet
and viewed mostly on Macs. That
Intranet is cyberspace within Warner
Bros. behind a very thick firewall.
Each scene may be in any stage
of development: story reel of sketches;
mechanical tests (for example, camera moves); ruff (their consistent spelling of rough); clean up; and final
(color) animation. A scene is described as a continuous "take" without switching camera position; camera and lens moves are OK within a
"scene." When any person on the
team accesses a scene, its stage of development is dearly stated in a subtitle within the frame with the date
and time of the latest update. A person working on a particular scene
may want to see the scenes immediately preceding and following his/her
own to insure continuity.
The final animation is stored as
individual high resolution TIFF
frames on magnetic tape for transfer
to film. During the course of the film's
development all the scenes in their
1
20 Washington Apple Pi Journal
latest stage are stored on tape. However, this data is not available to the
large staff working with non-workstation computers. So, "software was developed to automatically generate
QuickTime movies and to create
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) pages for accessing them ...The
software ran automatically every
night and made updates to the web
pages while generating new
QuickTime files for scenes that had
changed." It even generated an e-mail
message addressed to the whole team
each morning notifying them exactly
which scenes had been changed.
The generated QuickTime movies are created in two resolutions (both
less than the final): low resolution
320x240 pixel frames compressed
with the Apple Video codec (coder/
decoder) Gust the way I do it!); and
higher resolution 720x540 pixel JPEG
compressed. "The 720x540 format is
D-1 video compatible resolution used
in desktop nonlinear editing systems." (Note: D-1 is a standard digital format used by television program
producers.) The user can choose between resolution and download time.
All scene resolutions are recorded at
the standard motion picture 24 frames
per second.
The download speeds were indicated in table below (not all listed here):
The process starts with a story
reel of sketches that are locked after
approval of the director. Temporary
or final dialog is added. The reel is
then broken down into individual
scenes. The ruff stage of each scene
results from a series of drawings by
animators either by hand or computer
and may omit frames. After the director approves these scenes, they are
entered for the first time on the Web.
Scenes on the Web in ruff stage are
labeled "(Ruff Animation (r)." Next
comes the clean up stage where image quality is improved and missing
frames are created and inserted. These
scenes are labeled "Clean Up Animation (c)." After clean up animation is
approved, the scene goes into the final color stage involving many departments to insure that colors are
correct and consistent. This stage is
labeled "Final Animation (f)."
So far, this review has covered the
first two pages of the paper. Twelve
pages follow going into infinite detail
on how the HTML and the web pages
are created, and describing flow charts
of the updating process and network
configuration. Suggested enhancements of the system include streaming
rather than downloading scenes and
the addition of serving automatically
assembled sequences of scenes.
Being in the middle of making my
own homegrown animation, I felt a
close kinship to the folks at Warner
Bros. whom I have never met! •
Machine (CPU)/
Network connection:
Download speed
(Kbyteslsec}:
SGI (Silicon Graphics,
Inc.) R4400 MIPS 250
MHz)/ATM
1966
Windows NT PC
(Pentium II 133 MHz)/
10baseT
1179
Macintosh 9600
(PowerPC 350 MHz)/
10base T
496
Next Step PC (Pentium
11133MHz)/10baseT
373
Macintosh 7500
(PowerPC 100 MHz)/
10baseT
154
March I April 2000
are apparently supposed to be hard to
read.
Font of Wisdom
© 2000 Lawrence I. Charters
M
ACINTOSH
computers
have been with us for a long
time, but most people still
don't know how to use them properly. Not just a few, mind you, but:
most.
As proof, just look at almost anything written by Mac users over the
past decade and a half. Given that the
Macintosh almost single handed
(neat trick for a limbless computer)
revolutionized the world of typesetting, it is shocking to see how many
letters, memos, reports, and other bits
and pieces of text produced on such
marvelous machines look like they
were produced on: typewriters.
While this aberration is most pronounced in and around Washington,
DC (where "innovation" often means
getting rid of the new and going back
to the old), this blight is present almost everywhere. Hardly a day goes
by without a church flyer or some
other organization brochure falling
out of the mail, printed in several different sizes of Courier, a monospaced
font invented for the IBM Selectric
typewriter (in 1961). Or entire letters
written in Chicago, a font designed
(in 1983) specifically for the Mac's
menus, and nothing else.
So, as an intellectual exercise, let
us consider a brand-new shopping
mall that wants to promote its stable
of upscale stores for the discriminating shopper. Here is how the federal
government would list the stores, using Courier, of course:
Figure 1 (see top of next column)
While there is nothing wrong
with such a list, it tends to look ster-
March I April 2000
Some people take the idea of "elegance" a bit too far, and use calligraphic fonts to "add style." Calligraphic fonts are definitely elegant,
subtly suggesting days of yore when
all text was written by hand
using quills:
Olfactory Outlet
The Pet Exorcist
Home Dentistry Warehouse
One Hour Lobbyist
Instant Friends
Tombs tones To Go
Yesterday's Kitty Litter
ile and colorless. Another problem
with Courier (and all other
monospaced fonts) is that it is harder
to read: the eye has to travel the same
distance for thin letters, such as j, as
for wide ones, such as w. This makes
it more tiring to read things written
in Courier, as the eyes must travel farther and work harder.
Listing the stores in Palatino, a
popular serif font, adds an almost instant elegance:
Figure 2
Figure 3 (see this column, below)
Before you write something in a calligraphic font (in
this case Nuptial Script), there
are a few things to keep in
mind. First, writing with
quills is hard on geese. Second, calligraphic fonts are
hard to read. While it might
be fine for a once-in-a-lifetime event,
like a marriage, for lesser purposes it
is exasperating. Roughly once a week,
a letter or a flyer arrives in the mail
7Jog r:Slo66er Candies
'Xon.-7/lco£oh"c 9/oor Coverings
Conlainer in a 23ox
23ed & !Palernily
9ruilcde 7Jisposal
Jlim '!A? Qis Cuslodj !A?esofulion
.7£e 9as£Lon !JJ(orgue
Slightly Green Lobster
Dial-a-Politician
Coffee Stains: Near Antiques
Yes, You Can Eat That Exotic Foods
Tot City: Deductions to Go
Thesaurus Assistance
Debriefing: Underwear for Presenters
Palatino, by the way, is the font
used for body text in the Washington
Apple Pi Journal. If you take a look
through your home, you'll soon discover that virtually every book, magazine, and newspaper uses a serif type
for body text. Government reports, of
course, usually use Courier, since they
written entirely in calligraphic
fonts (note: usually more than
one). These are quickly dispatched to the recycle bin, unread.
This does not, of course,
m~an that everything should
be written in Palatino and
other serif fonts. Traffic signs, for example, are always written in sansserif fonts: they have simple messages, and want to make their point
quickly and emphatically. In our upscale mall, the mall directory would
be a good place to have a sans-serif
font, such as Optima:
Washington Apple Pi Journal 21
rr
Figure 4
Budget Lurker
Rent-a-Kid VCR Programming
Celebrity Kleenex Trading Company
Head-on-a-Platter Just Desserts
Squat: the Short and Fat Store
Books On Tape Bookmarks
Tomorrow's Castoffs and Sundries
Optima, and other sans-serif
fonts, should not be overused. Some
Web sites, for example, use sans-serif
fonts for everything because it looks
different. Unfortunately, it doesn't look
different if overused; it is the contrast
with serif type that makes it look different.
An important point to consider:
while very small children might read
letter-by-letter, literate readers read by
the shapes of words. Serif fonts, such
as Times (the most popular font in the
world), Palatino, and Garamond (all
Apple advertising is done in
Garamond), are easier to read in small
sizes. The serifs at the end of strokes
~ake the letters more distinctive, givmg the words more of a shape. Using
proper capitalization also gives the
words more shape.
To illustrate this, consider the
worst abuse of typography in the 20th
century: the Surgeon General's warning on packs of cigarettes. Ordered to
put the warning on all cigarette packages, the tobacco companies decided
to comply in such a way as make the
warning all but unreadable. The
warning was reproduced in a sanserif font, all upper-case, with a heavy
border and unnecessary lines thrown
in, thwarting any attempt to "read by
shape:"
22 Washington Apple Pi Journal
Figure 5
mon corporate paraphernalia should exhibit some creativity.
Keep in mind, too, that most of
the printed world is still black and
white. A recent flyer, announcing the
retirement of a coworker, was printed
in six different colors, with six different sizes of type. Six different colors
and sizes of Courier.
Wouldn't it have been easier to
read (and photocopied much better)
to write it in a careful mix of serif and
sans-serif fonts?
Further reading
Almost every issue of the Washington Apple Pi Journal lists the programs, hardware and fonts used to
construct the Journal, usually on page
SURGEON GENERALS'S WARNING: SMOKING CAUSES LUNG CANCER
HEART DISEASE. EMPHYSEMA. AND MAY COMPLICATE PREGNANCY
Insurance contracts, credit card
applications and other forms use a
similar tactic, making sure to obscure
the parts they really don't want you
to read by writing them in tiny, sansserif type, all in upper case letters.
"Combat typography" must be a required course in marketing programs.
But our upscale shopping mall
doesn't want to drive customers
away. Instead, we want to invite them
in to spend money, and one of the
least expensive ways to do this is
through good use of typography.
Good places for distinctive typography are the signs above the store entrances:
Figure 6 (see upper page 22)
Good typography, of course,
shouldn't be limited to mall directories or store entrances. While the body
text of brochures, leaflets, flyers, business letters and such should aim for
effortless clarity, the name of the business - reproduced on those same
items, plus business cards, bumper
stickers, coffee mugs and other com-
3. Flip back a few pages and take a
look. Then see if you can figure out
why we made these choices. Then tell
us; we crave reassurance.
An introduction to fonts was published in the Journal during the 1900s,
"Fonts: An Overview," Washington
Apple Pi Journal, pp. 29-32, May /June
1999. This covers such topics as the
differences between serif, sans-serif,
calligraphic and other kinds of fonts.
If you are a new Macintosh user
or a veteran Macintosh user, or you
have never, ever used a Macintosh
take a look at Robin Williams' Th;
Little Mac Book. Now in its sixth edition, this is the best computer book
yet written: it presents a mass of technical information in a non-technical
non-threatening fashion, with subtle:
splendid illustrations. There is an entire chapter devoted to fonts that
quite frankly, doesn't touch on any of
the topics covered here. But she does
tell you how your Mac uses fonts, as
well as thousands of other useful
things.
Most personal computer users
I
March I April 2000
IT
0 Decorator ~ Punctuation
fr
VAG Rounded Bold, Zapf Dingbats
PUPIL PIUCIHG
WUCH VOU'V{ PUHCTUMD .rfUIJT~IHG U~
ITC Anna
8Q"IJ.£_T:
The l!lho:r't and Fa't l!l'to:re
Madrone
Robin Williams, The Little Mac Book,
61h ed., Peachpit Press, 1999, 445
pages, $19.95
Robin Williams, The Mac is not a typewriter, Peachpit Press, 1990, 72 pages,
$9.95
Robin Williams, The Non-Designer's
Type Book, Peachpit Press, 1998, 239
pages, $24.95
Robin Williams, How to Boss Your
Fonts Around, 2nd ed., Peachpit Press,
1998, 188 pages, $16.95
FRuiTcAkE DisposAl
WE doN'T ASk,
NEiT~ER s~ould
you
Peignot Demi
CONTAINER In a Box
Russell Square
don't really understand how to even
type on a modern computer, much
less a Macintosh. Common punctuation, tabs, margins and other essentials baffle them (and it shows). Robin
Williams addressed these concerns in
her first book, The Macintosh is not a
typewriter, an excellent, slender volume just as valuable today as it was a
decade ago.
If you've mastered the lessons of
these books, you are ready for some
heavy-duty typography, which Robin
Williams covers in two more books,
How to Boss Your Fonts Around, 2nd ed.,
and The Non-Designer's Type Book. The
first discusses font management on
the Macintosh: what fonts are, how
they work, how they are stored. The
second discusses typography as an
aesthetic as well as an applied art
form, with outstanding examples of
how to look sharp using nothing more
than tasteful typography (and talent).
You might ask: haven't other
people written books about fonts and
typography? Certainly. They just
aren't as good. •
March I April 2000
...--------
••
Caution!
I stop for red lights
© 1999 Charles Stancil
Washington Apple Pi Journal 23
Nova Development's
Print Explosion
By Steven Kiepe
E
VERY ONCE in a very great
while . a program comes along
. that is so feature filled, solidly
written and fairly priced that you
have to question why other software
vendors can't compete. Nova
Development's home craft-graphic
program Print Explosion is one such
application. Designed to empower
co~puter novices with the ability to
quickl~ and easily create greeting
cards, signs, banners, calendars, business cards and more, it has broken the
code on how to be both powerful and
user friendly. Print Explosion is
brought to us by the same folks who
package some of the most popular
b~dles of computerized graphic art
clips, Art Explosion.
For those of you who have already dabbled with other seemingly
related products such as Sierra's Print
A~tist f?r Windows and Mac, you
might disregard Print Explosion as just
another in a series of inexpensive applications for home use. Don't make
that assumption until you take a look
a~ t~e ~r?duct. True, there are many
s1m1lanties between Print Explosion
and other products oriented toward
the novice computer user. It has a
simple interface, comes with thousands of pre-constructed templates
for cards, banners and the like, and is
bundled with a fairly significant collection of clip art and fonts. Additionally, Print Explosion has features that
w~ul~ normally require separate apphcahons costing potentially hundreds of more dollars.
24 Washington Apple Pi Journal
The first step in creating a new
1:1asterpiece is the project type selection. The user can pick from general
categories including cards, signs and
posters, banners, certificates, calendars, labels, letterhead, invitations
and many more. Once a general categor~ is chosen, another menu opens
up with a host of pre-built templates,
ready for immediate use. Nova Development states that there are more
than 4,000 professionally crafted templates ready to use and after having
scrolled through a few of the catego-
,.. oil
Fllc
ries, I believe it. The clip art and fonts
are already pre-selected and they do
a pretty fair job, ranging from comic
to more prqfessional work.
If the pre-built templates aren't
quite what you're looking for, it is
very easy to add clip art from an in~lud~d selection of over 50,000 graphics clips, 1,200 photos and 1,000 fine
art images. The included graphic arts
clips are in fully scalable proprietary
vector format, currently exclusive to
Print Explosion. The photos and fine art
images are in more familiar raster formats. Of course, the program also allows the import of your own TIFF, EPS,
PICT, GIF and JPEG graphics. Even
more impressive is the built in support
for Twain-compliant scanners.
The Print Explosion clip art selection is fairly typical of what you find
on the market; a significant percentage of it is made up of caricatures,
usually humorous, with a smaller percentage more "professional" in nature. The included photographs and
fine art images are generally landscapes and plants with a handful of
E~ View Insert Font Sfyle Object Arrange Window Help
iDl~l~I ~00 ' ?Kl!b'.~lrml ·P I I I B l~l~1~1:§1~
CH,oos.e·a Greeting Car'd
r
cat egorles:
Blanks
Blanks -M
Anniversary
Birthday,
Business
Cheer Up
Christmas
(Front·
I
,__I
~
...
Lewouts:
Child, Tell the Tooth
co-Worker, Bouquet
co-Worker, Champ
CD::Worlcer,Aowers &Swirls
Co-Worker, Group Huddle
Co-Worker, Memo
Co-Worker, No Day Off
co-Worker, Tears !lf Joy
Cousin, Style Points
.._
~
Crept Up on You
'
s.s trl:x e.s tn.
I Cancer) I < Back I ij
Finish
d
Marc h I April 2000
3"5~="- --~ Print Graphics Catalog S::
cat egory t o Prl n:t
p11ge Previ ew
ll, Alphobtts
ll,Nn..-lcano
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BRIDGET CAll>S
abstract art works thrown in for good
measure.
All of the included clip art is catalogued in a 500 page softbound volume that averages 132 preview
grayscale image clips per page. Also
displayed in the manual is a representation of the 500 true type fonts included with the package. I counted
March I April 2000
closer to 140 type families, which then
grow to 500 font styles when you add
in font weighting and style modifications to each typeface. Regardless, the
selection is excellent and there are
more than enough fonts to meet the
needs of all but the most fanatical
typesetters.
A very nice feature of the pro-
gram is the ability to create special text
shape effects, similar to that found in
programs like Adobe's Type Twister.
Print Explosion's type shifting capabilities far surpass Type Twister's and
don't require cutting and pasting the
finished product from a separate application.
One of the features I most liked
about Print Explosion is its built in
postscript interpreter which automatically converts vector graphics,
both it's own proprietary images as
well as standard encapsulated postscript (EPS) images to raster (bitmap)
images when printing to non-postscript printers. This capability alone
makes Print Explosion a bargain as
otherwise the non-postscript inkjet
printer user would be constrained to
printing EPS previews on (usually 72
dots per inch - low resolution) or investing in conversion products like
Art Age's EPS-to-PICT or Birmy's
PowerRIP. Print Explosion enables vector clip art to be placed, scaled, manipulated and then printed at the
maximum resolution of the output
device without loss of print quality. It
really produces beautiful output on
today's very affordable ink-jet printers.
Print Explosion was designed for
the Macintosh. It makes extensive use
of the AppleGuide help system which
means it will lead you step by step
through whatever actions are required to get the results you desire.
ust when you think there couldn' t
be any more, well hang on a bit longer.
Print Explosion has a feature which
will print catalogs of your favorite clip
art (both Nova's and your own collection) and it will also print catalogs
of your installed fonts. This feature
just made two more utilities unnecessary.
I've had the opportunity to run
Print Explosion through the wringer
and I couldn't break it. It never
bombed, crashed, froze up or even
slowed down. The screen renderings
are fast, conversion to print very
quick, and installation and use excep-
Washington Apple Pi Journal 25
r
0
'1
Ol e £'Ott View Insert Font
~"1tltlecl
tionally simple. The program comes
with a total satisfaction guarantee but
I'm pre tty sure Nova isn't getting
many returned! Print Explosion is a
winner and I highly recommend adding it to your core application list,
even if you own high-end applications such as PageMaker or Quark,
PhotoShop and Illustrator. Nova is currently offering a user group discount
price of $39.95, a $10 discount. To get
your copy, call customer service at 1800-395-NOVA and mention code 636.
You will not be disappointed. •
,. ·a Tiie Ecjit Vl!;!,w Insert · fiont S,tyle QbJect Arrilnge Wind;QW
IDlr3lfE11l~l !?! I . ~ ]5@1@] !PIII B l~l l gJ~l~lml
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26 Washington Apple Pi Journal
.~
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Q
March I April 2000
Extensis Portfolio and
CD-ROMs
Keeping Your Digital Images
Organized
© By Dennis R. Dimick
P
ERHAPS YOU have a new digital camera, and you've been
shooting nearly anything that
moves. You've accumulated hundreds of digital picture files on your
hard drive. Friends and relatives enjoy receiving your e-mailed p icture
files, and perhaps some digital images
grace you r web site.
Alas, you're having a hard time
remembering where you put the files
for those great d igital pictures of last
summer's camping trip, and your
computer hard drive that used to
seem so big is nearly jammed full with
picture files.
If this d escription fits you, it
might be time to consider your own
"digital asset management" strategy:
an image-cataloging program and a
drive that lets you create your own
CD-ROMs.
One cataloging program I've
found useful and easy to use is Portfolio 4.1 from Extensis Software of
Portland, Oregon. A graphics database program, Portfolio can help you
organize, manage, and access your
burgeoning graphics file collection.
A CD-R or CD-RW drive combined with disk writing software such
as Adaptec's Toast will let you create
your own CD-ROMs to archive and
backup picture files and other files .
(CD-Recordable is an older forma t
Marc h I April 2000
that writes once to a blank CD. CDRW lets you rewrite data to CD-ROM
format compatible optical disks.)
If you combine Portfolio's graphics cataloging and database prowess
with the archiving role of a CD-R or
CD-RW drive, you've taken a big step
towards taking control of an ever-expanding image and graphics file collection.
D
From Fetch to Portfolio
Portfolio originally appeared in
1991 as Aldus Fetch from the Seattle
firm that created PageMaker. About
four years ago Ex tensis Software
bought Fetch from Adobe Systems
after Adobe bought Aldus. Extensis
began an aggressive program of upgrading and strengthening this singleuser image cataloger. Portfolio has
now become a versatile cross-platform client-server suite of tools for
managing graphics files.
Despite its strength as an enterprise tool, Portfolio also retains simplicity as a stand-alone program for
single users. The current version 4.1
has become quite popular for organizing photographs, clip art,
QuarkXpress documents, QuickTime
movies, sounds and other digital
graphics files.
A new slide show feature in 4.1
allows you to sequence and rearrange
the order of photos in a catalog on the
fly for presentation as an on-screen
slide show. Further, once you create a
E!l El
source snow 012000.fdb - 2
I~ li9~f..QI lifl• l=lfil
l!cit~mm 1
Filename
MVC-063X.JPG
MVC- 073X.JPG
M\IC- 057X.JPG
M\IC-085X .JPG
M\IC- 103X.JPG
HVC- 062X.JPG
MVC- 072X.JPO
M\IC- 080X.JPG
M\IC-077X.JPG
File Size
Last Modified
Fi le Tvpe Mao
1/20/009 :27 :08" TEXT
1/20/0010 :59:16 TEXT
1 /20/00 9 :25 :44 " TEXT
1/20 /00 11 :16:20 TEXT
1/20/0011 :38 :04 JPEG
1 /20 /00 9 :26 :54
TOO
1 /20/00 10 :58 :00 TEXT
1 /20/00 11 :06:34 TEXT
1 /20/00 11 :04 :32 TEXT
13SK
167K
144K
103K
123K
18 1K
148K
148K
176K
Volume
Media Files
Media Files
Media Filts
Media Files
Media Files
Medi~ FllH
Media Files
Media Flies
Media Files
...
9 of44
• 1lJjf
M\IC-062X.JPO
Thumbnail
Keywords
1 ....
Description
A Graphics Database: Portfolio provides extensive database and search tools for your
graphics catalogs. You can create database field types to your liking, and you can also
search for images based on a specific quality to automatically create custom galleries.
Washington Apple Pi Journal 27
Portfolio's Galleries: Extensis Portfolio, a graphics cataloging and database program, allows you to create
subsets of master catalogs. The smaller window at right contains an edited selection of images. This
"gallen/' as it is called, can then be shown as a slide show using your Mac's screen or a digital projector.
master catalog of images, you can immediately build custom "galleries" of
selected images or illustrations from
the master catalog to present as slide
shows for specific clients or projects.
Extensis also offers a free Portfolio Browser program that lets you
share cataloged images with others.
You can, for example, create a cataloged collection of images or graphics files with Portfolio, and place the
files and catalog on a CD-ROM for
viewing along with Portfolio Browser.
Creating Your Image Catalogs
To create a catalog, drag a folder
of graphics files into an open Portfolio
28 Washington Apple Pi Journal
catalog window. Portfolio will automatically create a database of all images, cataloging them by filename, file
type, file size, and modification date.
Portfolio will create thumbnail images
for most files depending on their type.
You can view catalogs via a window of thumbnail images, as a list of
database information, or as a single
record with thumbnail and relevant database information . You can customize
database fields and keywords at will,
and it's possible to set up your own set
of keywords that most closely reflect
your personal work or preferences.
This only begins to describe what
Portfolio can do. If you have
QuarkXPress documents with images in
them you can use
AppleScript to have
Portfolio automatically catalog all image
files in the Xpress
documents. Portfolio
will create catalogs
that you can make
available for viewing
from web servers via
any Web browser.
Apple's drag-anddrop
technology
plays a central role in
Portfolio's utility. Besides catalog creation,
you can drag images
from Portfolio catalogs for placement
into QuarkXpress and
PageMaker documents. You can drag
images from Portfolio
catalogs to create custom folders of images
for later processing.
You can drag images
from Portfolio catalogs onto an alias for
an imaging program
like Photoshop, and
all selected source
images will open for
editing.
A New Portfolio's Coming
As I was writing in early February, Extensis announced a version 5.0
of Portfolio for release this spring.
Portfolio 5 will allow cataloging and
viewing of all pages in multiple-page
PowerPoint, QuarkXpress and Adobe
Acrobat documents. You'll be able to
search for images across multiple
Portfolio catalogs, even those catalogs
located on web sites. Portfolio 5 also
will allow you to take image catalogs
and save them to QuickTime movie
format. You can then, for example,
add a sound track with voice-over
narration or music to your slide
shows.
March / April 2000
Stay on the Path
Despite Portfolio's benefits, keep
in mind it requires persistent logical
pathnames for catalogs. If you build
a catalog on a h ard drive volume
named "My Pictures", and then create a CD-ROM with that same Portfolio catalog and the source images on
it, be sure to name the CD-ROM "My
Pictures." If you don't, each time you
try to access the images represented
in the catalog, Portfolio will ask you
to insert the "My Pictures" source
disk.
There are benefits to this. You can
also save your images to a variety of
CD-ROMs or other disks and create a
Portfolio catalog file of those disks
where only the catalog file resides on
your hard drive. If there's an image
you seek later, Portfolio will prompt
you to insert the source disk by name
to retrieve the source image.
About CD-R and CD-RW
These optical disks are becoming
quite popular as an archival medium.
If you are a photographer, graphic
designer, or anyone who create a lot
of graphics files, these CD-Rand CDRW drives that create CD-ROMs are
nearly mandatory as a way to manage and store your image files. Beyond this, these drives are an ideal
backup medium for any type of data.
Disks hold anywhere from 650 to
700 MB of data each, and CD-R and
CD-RW drives are now offered by
many vendors. Just a year or so ago I
got blank stares from a Comp USA
store clerk when I sought to buy blank
CD-R disks, but they are available at
most all computer and office supply
stores today. Recently I saw an office
supply store selling CD-R blanks for 69
cents each when bought in batches of
100.
If you seek to buy a drive, check
the various Mac mail order catalogs
or the web site (www.apstech.com) of
long-time Mac vendor APS Technologies of Kansas City. It's always possible to get a decent quality CD-R or
CD-RW drive in the $300 to $350
March I April 2000
Adaptec Toast""
3.5.7
Mac Fil•s & Fold• rs _
Data ...
Data: snow 012000
31.4 MB CD- ROM
100 Files / 2 Folders
Total: 03 :38:47
--------CD R•cord•r
----------------""7
Sony CDU926S
[
Search
SCSI Bus 2, ID 6
Check Speed ...
Write CO...
Toasting Data: If you combine Extensis Portfolio with a CD-R or CD-RW drive and
Adaptec's Toast, yo11 can keep your expanding image collections under control. Toast is
an easy to 11se disk writing software for creating your own CD-ROMs.
range, and all come bundled with disk
writing software. My favorite is an
outstanding disk writing program
called Toast, now published by
Adaptec.
Like Portfolio, Toast lets you
"drag and drop" data files into the
program window and the software
does the rest when creating your archival CD-ROMs. Vendors now sell
CD-R and CD-RW drives in SCSI,
USB and even FireWire models.
The Key is Keeping Track
Whether you have a digital camera, a film scanner, or you' re a graphic
designer who creates projects from
image editing or page layout programs, you're an obvious candidate
for a program like Extensis Portfolio.
You don't have to buy to try, as a fully
functional 30-day demo version of
Portfolio is available from Extensis'
website at www.extensis.com.
Combine this powerful cataloging program w ith Adaptec's Toast
and a CD-R or CD-RW drive and
you'll have in place the basic tools to
organize and archive your own library of graphics files. •
Pi member Dennis Dimick has an idea
how to organize his digital picture
files, but he's still trying to find the
time and energy to organize thousands of boxes of Kodachrome slides
stored in his basement. He can be
reached via email: [email protected].
Extensis Portfolio 4.1
Mac OS 7.5.3 - 9.0
Power PC Required
6MB Application RAM Needed
Street Price About $190
Extensis Corporation
1800 SW First Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97201
Phone 503-274-2020
Web: www.extensis.com
Adaptec Toast
Usually Bundled with CD-R and
CD-RW Drives
Available Separately for $99 fram
www.adaptec.com
691 South Milpitas Blvd.
Milpitas, CA 95035
Phone 408-945-8600
Washington Apple Pi Journal 29
do be sure to get a look at the widest
possible range of products. This is an
extremely competitive business.
Nikon CoolPix 950-Nice
Enough Pictures
Review by John Barnes
1
UST AFTER Christmas I sim-
ply had to drop in on my local professional photo supply house to
see what the "megapixel" buzz in
digital still cameras was all about. I
fully expected to hear the "not yet
ready for prime time" comments that
they had given me in the past. Or
maybe they would have something
good but I would find the price too
high. In any case I was skeptical and I
thought I had conditioned myself not
to leap at the new technology.
Well, I wound up subjecting my
credit card to another bloodletting on
the altar of bleeding edge technology.
My purchase of a Nikon CoolPix
950 camera at a competitive price has
put a new spark into my home snap
shooting. The claim that one can produce attractive 8 x 10 prints with an
ink jet device turns out to be fully supported. The choice of this particular
model of this particular brand was
conditioned to some extent by media
hype, but I excluded all models that
lacked an optical finder. LCD finders
do not do the job for me out of doors.
The idea of additional optical flexibility through interchangeable lenses
has some allure. The CoolPix 950 is
priced at the high end of its class, but
not outrageously so.
It takes only a little imagination
to find innumerable uses for one of
these cameras. There are plenty of
choices for those who want to shop
feature sets and pricing. However, do
not rely on the magazine articles, and
Figure 1 - The little widget shown here is part of a materials science experiment. The
left view was taken with my Nikon Coo/Pix 950, the one on the right with a Kodak
DCSO. Note the improved sharpness and tonal range in the left hand image.
30 Washington Apple Pi Journal
Things I like
I was not disappointed when I
started playing with the thing after
getting it home.
The first thing I like about this
gadget is its nice output. Figure 1 is a
side-by side comparison of a picture
taken with the Nikon and one taken
with a Kodak DC50. The latter camera is representative of the previous
generation of digital cameras. The Pi
web site offers a color version of this
illustration that probably has a lot
more detail.
Secondly, the camera has every
feature that one would expect in a
high-end 35 mm SLR camera. This
flexibility in adapting to different situations is very important to me. The
little lens cap with its built-in attachment point is kind of cute, too. I used
a cable tie to secure it around the camera strap.
The next thing I like is the ease
with which the photo files can be
handled. The proprietary photo formats that had to be converted to more
general formats have been replaced
by on-the-fly compression to files
s tored on flash memory. When it
comes time to work with the images
the computer treats the flash memory
just like a removable disk drive.Just
take the little flash memory card out
of the camera, slip it into a suitable
adap ter, plug the package into the
PCMCIA slot, and drag and drop.
Users who lack a PCMCIA slot can
use Nikon-supplied software to
achieve the same effect through a
serial connection to the camera. I
have not yet tried this approach because I am concerned about battery
life.
This simplicity in handling images is a terrific boon for newsletter
editors, Web authors, parents, and
other animal lovers. These folks can
shoot their favorite subjects until the
March I April 2000
I
plied as Acrobat Reader
files on a CD-ROM. I
also scanned in the
"QuickStart" card so
that I would not lose it.
The documentation is
clear and readable.
However, as w ill be
noted below, the system
is complicated enough
so that the user will use
the manuals early and
often. I found that some
features were covered in
yet a third document, a
30 page "Pocket Guide"
I decided to scan this in
as well, just so that I
would not lose it.
The chief enabling
technology
of the
8 Autofocus lamp
Gi) LCD monitor
megapixel
revolution
as
0 Voowftnder eyOj)ioco
G Eyolet for camorn strap
seen
in
the
CoolPix
and
Ci> Flnsh·ready lamp
@i> Command dial
CD) Vrdao cabto connector
•Lens
others of its ilk is JPEG
$ Powor jack for oplionnt AC
f9 Viowfindor
compression.
The
adaptor
@) BullHn flash
CoolPix
offers
three
$ MOdodiat
fiD Rrid·eye reductiOn lamp
$ Shutter·rc!oaso buuon
pixel counts, each with
~ Pliotocell
G> Control panel
three different compres0 Connoctor lor exlomat flash
49 Senat <>11ble connector
G Dic;>:c: ruf,'1.l!:tmon\ dial
sion ratios, for a total of
G MONITOR button (pre$$ 0nt0
fl!) Tripod sed<ot
nine resolutions which
to hldO seuin9s. press again to
Ei!) CompactFlash card slot
tum monitor oft. ptl!SS 0 third
allow
from 8 to 200 imtimo to tum monitor on)
G> Battery chamber latch
ages
on
an 8 MB flash
G) MENU button
9 Banory chamber covor
memory card . An
Figure 2 - Features and controls for the Nikon
uncompressed TIFF
Coo/Pix 950.
Mode that gives a single
frame on an 8 MB
cows come home and get immediate
memory card is also available. Higher
gratifica tion that beats one hour
capacity flash memory cards run
photo stores all hollow for cost and
around $3 per megabyte and new
convenience.
models are appearing all the time.
I'll spare you the gory details and
Party animals can upload slide shows
and simply feed them to a TV set
say merely that a full picture of the
through the built-in video output
family beagle from a 1024 x 758 frame
port. Since the video display is live to
pleased the technophobe s pouse
enough to elicit a pained acquiescence
the LCD screen it is possible to use a
TV set as a viewfinder. People who
in the form of a statement of "You
might as well keep buying your techie
make extensive use of these features
w ill need to purchase an external
gadgets because it might enhance the
power supply. It looks like the Nikon
value of our high-tech mutual funds."
folks have cleverly engineered things
Those who crave detailed speciso that their power supply is the only
fications can find them at the Nikon
one to use.
USA web site.
Manuals and software are sup-
March I April 2000
Things I don't like
Complexity is probably a price
we have to pay for power in a small
package. In any case this gadget is
plenty complex. Figure 2 is a scan
from the quickstart card showing the
various features, buttons, and controls. Figure 3 is a guide to the information that is presented on the LCD
viewfinder / playback screen. Let's
just say that this all takes some getting used to. Users should devote a
fair amount of spare time to fiddling
with the various modes and controls
in order to get a better idea of what
suits them. There is provision for saving customized parameter sets for
particular shooting situations.
Selecting modes of operation can
get pretty convoluted. Some settings
are controlled from a menu that is
about as hard to use as the one on a
VCR. Others are selected by turning
a tiny wheel while mashing down on
a tiny button. I wonder who designs
these things. Maybe it's the Finnish
guy who uses a cell phone to buy soft
drinks. Is there a market for an infrared link that would let us read the
manual and call up settings from a
PDA?
The delay between shots could be
an annoyance for sports photographers. There are provisions for multi
shot work, but it seems easier to pop
in a new roll of film than to make
space in memory by editing out extra
shots.
The next thing I don't like is the
fragmentation of the documentation.
Different pieces show different things.
All of this should be collected in a
comprehensive reference manual. It is
frustrating to find an important feature such as the multi shot capability
stashed away in a document that is
otherwise not very useful and that is
not available in electronic form.
Battery life is a real problem. It
does not take much of a session to
drain 4 AA cells. I may look into
rechargeables, but it may be cheaper
to simply buy the batteries in bulk.
Washington Apple Pi Journal 31
These costs will partly reduce the savings from not having to develop and
digitize film. Will I need an AC
adapter? I'm put off by Nikon's price,
but I may have to bite the bullet. Judicious use of the "Monitor" button
to turn off the LCD display ameliorates things a little bit. The flash uses
quite a lot of juice as well.
The price of converter lenses
seems rather high. I see no immediate need for them, but it is nice to
know that they are there if I need
them. The optical built-in zoom range
supposedly corresponds to a 35 to 115
mm zoom lens on a 35 mm SLR. I
might be happier with 28 to 100.
The built-in flash is kind of
weeny. There is provision for
synching to beefier flash units. Most
of these are at least as bulky as the
CoolPix itself. If one wants to light up
the scene one needs a place to store
all of those joules.
I wonder about the funky twistto-shoot design. This certainly decreases the required storage space. It
also gives added flexibility for some
kinds of shooting. However, one does
wonder if the joint between the two
parts of the camera could be a weak
point.
Will this be your only camera?
The last time my wife and I traveled abroad we shot twenty 20 exposure rolls of 35 mm film, for a total of
about 400 frames. Perhaps a third of
these were "keepers." A single 64 MB
flash memory card would, therefore,
hold all of our good snapshots at a
resolution that is adequate for our
purposes.
The cost, with batteries, would be
comparable to what we spent on developing, printing, and digitizing
those 20 rolls. Add in the fact that the
CoolPix 950 is a lot less bulky than a
standard 35 mm SLR and the idea of
using such a camera as one's main
photo device becomes quite attractive.
The biggest single drawback to
32 Washington Apple Pi Journal
this is the lack of a backup storage meWiii i Bleed Less if I wait?
dium for the pictures. A theft or acciMost of us find it galling to learn
dent would result in the loss of all of
that our latest high tech toy became
our snapshots, not just those that hapobsolete soon after we unpacked it. I
pen to be in the camera or the gadget
bag. With film the loss is limited to a
suspect that this is doubly the case
with
digital cameras, still or video. On
day or two's shooting at most (unless
our suitcases get totally lost).
the other hand one needs to get a few
Paper photo albums remain
things done. The answer is to learn to
easier to work with than the digital
love your purchases until they really
do show their age. Perhaps if you act
ones, although viewing applications
quickly enough you can get some
are improving rapidly. On the other
hand, the ability to crop digital phomoney for the old stuff at a Pi sale.
tos and compensate for some expoI have not attempted to spell out
sure defects is a huge plus.
all of the ways that this camera could
Consumables costs for digital printbe used. I know that I personally have
ing are not negligible, but it certainly
lots of projects that will benefit from
is a lot cheaper to make a 5 x 7 or 8 x
this camera, and I think it will be a lot
10 print that way. Modern photoof fun to share my work with my
quality papers help a lot in this regard.
friends and family. •
The bottom line is that I will probably use the Nikon for most shooting
in those places where I have easy access to my laptop
computer. On foreign
Icons in the LCD monitor (A-REC/M-REC)
trips of any consequence I will take
along the film camera,
Jli W\L.= TX1.25 0.7mE9~ 8
either as a secondary
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camera or as the prir1L
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In my youth I
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spent a lot of time in
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darkrooms
with
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smelly chemicals,
e Usor set number
Q) Number o! exposures romalning
bulky machines, and
8 Zoom indicator
G Exposure compensation
delicate media to cre8 Oigilal zoom
G Apetturo {f number)
ate a very modest oute distance
Focus mocte/manuaJ focus
G) Shutter speed
G Exposure modo
put of mostly undis8 "Dato not ser Indicator
G Metering rnodo
tinguished photo•
Flashmodo
(§) Muftl·shot modo
graphs. The newer
8 Battery indlCOIOI'
€D Best·shot modo
digital technologies
•
Cunont folder
f» Whito-balanee lock
0 Whito balaneo program
give me better prints
~ Aulo-oxposuro lock
Cl!> Senaitivlly
0 Lons c:onvertor settings
and better creative
4D Brigh!nessfcontrasl
Osuttumer
control over the imCD lrnage slle
e Auto-oxposure
target (spot
ages that I make. I
Cl) Image quatily
metoring)
cannot yet rival Ansel
Adams with big, draFigure 3 - Information presented on the monitor disma tic, needle sharp
play. Nearly every conceivable tidbit about the expoprints, but I can learn
sure can be read out here. The data is superimposed on
a lot with the tools I
the image in playback mode. It can be suppressed by a
have.
single push of the "monitor" button.
•••••
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March I April 2000
A Pi Labs Special Report
That WOW Thing You Do
by Jerry Kindall
From Simple Sound to
Enveloping Magic
RS LABS [1] fascinates us. Not
as an investment, mind you-a
look at the company's stock history [2] shows a steady downward
trend since the initial public offering
about three years ago, saved only by
a recent upturn. No, we like SRS Labs
because the company's technology for
enhancing stereo audio is way cool that is, it works.
When we first heard of SRS, well
over five years ago, this stereo-enhancing coolness belonged to Hughes
Aircraft. Arnold Klayman, a Hughes
engineers, had invented technology
that employed what acoustic wonks
call "head-related transfer functions"
(HRTFs) to improve audio reproduction. The basic idea is that the position of your ears on your head and
the shape of your outer ear (known
as the pinna) have a tremendous impact on the way your brain determines the spatial location of sound yet the way sound is ordinarily recorded and reproduced takes none of
this into account (except for special
"binaural" recordings, which are created with microphones in the ears of
a dummy head - we swear we are not
making this up - and which produce
a startling sense of realism when
played back over headphones, but do
not work well with regular speakers.)
Using HRTFs, Klayman invented a
gadget accounting for many of these
effects, albeit approximately, when
playing back normal stereo audio
material through ordinary speakers.
All it took was one listen for the
S
March I April 2000
brass at Hughes (the executives, not
the section in the company orchestra)
to realize they had something really
interesting on their hands. In addition
to the jaw-dropping 30 stereo effect
Klayman' s gizmo provided, they discovered it also made speaker placement in a room almost irrelevant you could hear a decent stereo image
no matter regardless of your location
or the speakers' location. Hughes
quickly gave Klayman a lab and a
staff, patented the technology, christened it the "Sound Retrieval System," and released a little box with the
technology that you could add to any
hi-fi system. It created quite a stir in
audiophile circles - when you could
find it, that is. As it turns out, Hughes
is pretty good at making planes but
lousy at marketing hi-fi equipment.
Although the company intended to
use the technology in their planes'
audio systems, they never did. The
company eventually lost interest in
Klayman' s work and went back to just
making planes.
SRS Labs is basically Klayman
and a few investors who banded together to wrest the technology patents
from Hughes and actually do something with them. At first, SRS was to
be a technology development company that made money through licensing. One of the company's investors founded a separate company
called NuReality to manufacture SRS
products, and many well-known electronics companies - including Sony,
Pioneer, and Apple - did in fact license
the technology. Meanwhile, the company kept inventing new ways to use
Klayman's basic idea, patenting them,
and licensing them like mad. Focus.
for automotive audio, compensates
for door placement of speakers by
"raising"
the
soundstage
psychoacoustically. TruSurround offers Dolby Pro Logic surround decoding for home theater systems using
only two speakers - we've heard it,
and yes, it really does sound like
sounds are coming from behind you.
SRS Headphone adjusts the sound you
get when listening through headphones and "moves" it outside your
head. Circle Surround is a surround
encoding technology that encodes
five discrete audio channels into one,
similar in concept to Dolby's technologies. VIP specially processes
voice signals to improve their intelligibility under poor conditions.
TruBass enhances the presence of bass
without making it sound overly
"boomy." There's no doubt the company has been busy finding acoustical problems that can be solved by
SRS. They even filed a patent [3] last
week on Internet" audio broadcasting
technologies" employing their technology.
Other companies have explored
the world of psychoacoustics, too, including Spatializer, QSound, and Arboretum. The first two license technology to professional and consumer
electronics manufacturers (Apple licensed Spatializer technology some
time ago for use in Game Sprockets)
and the latter makes software such as
the free Realizer plug-in for
SoundJam MP.
It goes without saying that most
computer speakers are pretty crapulent, even the US$200-range ones. But
while their frequency response is usually bad, they have an advantage over
more traditional listening environments when it comes to stereo imaging: they're used for what audio pros
refer to as "near-field monitoring."
The speakers are positioned only a
few feet from the listener, the listener
is usually equidistant from both
speakers ("in the sweet spot"), and the
Washington Apple Pi Journal 33
I
listening volume is low enough that
reflections from rear and side walls
don't muddy the sound. With MP3
gaining in popularity, people are listening to music on computers more
than ever before - we won't even
mention games, and they can really
benefit from enhanced stereo.
In short, the time was ripe for
someone to address the inherent limitations of computer audio with a solution targeted specifically toward
typical listening situations: lousy
speakers and near-field listening.
NuReality closed up shop some time
ago, so SRS Labs stepped up to the
plate with the aptly-named WOW
Thing Box. "WOW Thing" is a free
plug-in for WinAmp (a Windows
MP3 player); "WOW Thing Box" is a
hardware device that works with any
computer with miniature stereo jack,
including most Macs. If your Mac has
line-level RCA outputs, you'll need a
little Radio Shack- style adapter. The
US$30 (plus US$8 shipping in the US)
WOW Thing Box is even translucent
blue, so it's obvious that SRS Labs
was thinking of Apple's recent multihued creations.
It's certainly nice to be thought
of, even if you have to pay nearly
US$40 to get what Windows users get
for free. But let's be realistic - there's
no single dominant MP3 player for
the Mac like there is for Windows,
and of the four main ones, only
SoundJam MP supports audio processing plug-ins anyway. Although
Casady & Greene could probably use
it as a selling point for SoundJam,
they already have Realizer. So, as Mac
users are used to doing, we shelled
out some coin, but we get a box that
works for much more than MP3 playback. We went whole hog with WOW
thing - we sold a NuReality Vivid 30
Theater box, removing it from a main
entertainment system and replacing
it with the pocket-size NuReality
Vivid 30 Plus that had been enhancing sound on the test Macintosh computer. We then installed the WOW
Thing Box (which is exactly the same
34 Washington Apple Pi Journal
size and form factor as the Vivid,
about six inches wide, four inches
deep, and an inch thick, or 15.2cm by
10.lcm by 2.Scm) on the Mac.
And what can we say but...WOW!
Configuration is extremely
simple. Start some music, engage the
power, and switch the WOW processor into the circuit (there's a bypass
switch). Adjust the WOW knob until
you say "Wow," tum up the TruBass
control until you say "Wow" again,
and you're done - except for listening
to all your favorite MP3s, games, and
CDs through the thing for the next
four hours with your mouth gaping
slackly.
We used a pair of Aiwa SC-A78s
"When we first heard
of SRS, well over five
years ago, this stereoenhancing coolness
belonged to Hughes
Aircraft. Arnold
Klayman, a Hughes
engineers, had invented technology
that employed what
acoustic wonks call
'head-related transfer
functions' " ...
powered speakers on our test machine. They're not sold as computer
speakers, but they wiped the floor
with all the Cambridge and Bose computer speakers we tried at twice their
US$99 price. Although they're not small
like a satellite-and-subwoofer system,
they're certainly not desk hogs. They
aren't bass-shy, either, with a surprisingly powerful little subwoofer built
into the left speaker. The treble is a little
weak, but a spare graphic equalizer
fixed that problem. They also have
QSound 's Virtual Stereo processor,
which convinced us to hook up the
NuReality box in the first place.
The WOW Thing Box version of
SRS is even better than the original.
We assume the SRS engineers used
their knowledge of the typical computer sound system to further refine
the basic SRS effect. Your speakers essentially disappear; every sound you
hear comes from a precise location in
a semicircular soundstage that extends beyond your speakers. The effect was even more pronounced than
with the Vivid, yet just as naturalsounding (though we would have
doubted that possibility before we
heard it). We actually did a doubletake the first time an AOL Instant
Message came in: it literally sounded
like it was coming from the middle of
the monitor, since the notification
sound is monophonic. That was far
more precise placement than we ever
got. with the Vivid, although part of
that could be because the Vivid uses
two knobs to control the SRS effect
while the WOW Thing uses only one,
making it a bit more difficult to set up
to match the WOW Thing Box. We
were also surprised that we had to
tum down the treble a little using the
equalizer; the WOW process really
brings out cymbals and other highfrequency sounds.
Almost as amazing as the WOW
process is TruBass, also included on
the WOW Thing Box. Even though
the bass on these speakers was already pretty good, the WOW Thing
considerably fattened it without making it sound boomy. Again, we're not
sure how this particular voodoo
works, but we now hear low notes
we've never heard before on these
speakers - clearly, and without audible strain from the speakers. It actually sounds better to tum down the
subwoofer a little and crank up the
TruBass knob some more.
Quite literally every piece of
source material we tried exhibited an
immediate and dramatic improvement from when piped through the
WOW Thing. Music - from blues to
jazz to rock to classical - sounded simMarch I April 2000
ply fantastic. It was like replacing the
speakers with much larger and more
expensive ones. (The effect also works
w ith headp hones, and the WOW
Thing Box has a convenient hea dphone jack on i~s side.) We fired up a
couple of recent game demos to see
how they worked, and we think we
can safely say that gamers w ill be
very, very pleased, especially with
what TruBass d oes for explosion
sounds. You will probably want
somewhat lower WOW settings for
music than for games, however.
Can you tell we're in love with
this Thing? The only catch is that you
need external speakers - the sound
comes from your Macintosh through
the WOW Thing Box and on to the
speakers, and there's no way to send
the sound back to your computer 's internal speakers. (There's only so much
those internal beasties can do, anyway, even in the new iMacs with
Harman Kardon speaker enclosures.)
But if you' re a serious gamer or music lover, you probably already have
external speakers. If you do, you want
a WOW Thing Box.
As far as we're concerned, all
such people should have one. It truly
enhances the listening experience in
a way no other product we've tried
can match, and that's well worth
US$40. To order, call 1+800/243-2733,
or point your browser to <http:/ I
www.wowthing.com/
index_netscape.html>. And be sure
to tell them you use a Macintosh! •
Lab Notes
[1] <http:/ /www.srslabs.com />
[2] <http:// quote .ya hoo.com /
q?s=SRSL&d=Sy>
[3] <http: / /www.pmewswire.com/
cgi-bin/micro_stories.pl?
© 1999, GCSF Corporation . All Rights
Reserved. SamplecopiesofMWJ, The
Weekly Journal for Serious
Macintosh™ Users, and subscription
informa tion are ava ilable at
<www.gcsf.com>.
March I April 2000
MacTicker Reviewed
© 2000 Lawrence I. Charters
T:
ICKER TAPE is inexorably
ied to images of wealth in the
United States. Old pre-Depression movies showed smug industry
giants examining ticker tape as it
emerged from glass-domed devices.
Post-Depression movies showed anguished industry giants examining
less satisfactory tapes. Ticker tape parades are granted to war heroes, as-
~a
Tickerbanner: MacTicker's main display is the ticker itself a banner nmning
across the screen at a user-selectable position and speed. Depending on the size
of the screen and what else you might be doing, this can be a huge dis traction
or, on a large screen, a ven; subtle reminder that there is life out there, b~ond
your monitor. It is also a great way to impress your coworkers, even if you
don't own a dime of stock. Comments such as "Wow! It looks like a bad day for
margin buyers in postindustrial extractive mutuals" will impress almost anyone, as long as they don't ask you what that is supposed to mean.
Ill
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Tickerboxes: If you see something of interest on the streaming banner, double-clicking
on the item will bring up an information box about that stock. These can be set to one
of two sizes: a small, stark box (such as Motorola's), with the bare minimum of information, or a larger box (such as Apple's) with a wider range of detail. Note the thr~e
icons in the lower-right corner of the Apple box. Clicking on the rightmost one will
immediately refresh the information displayed, if possible. Clicking on the middle box
allows you to configure how information is displayed. Clicking on the leftmost ~ox
will launch your browser and take you to a Web page listing much more detailed
information about the selected stock.
Washington Apple Pi Journal 35
I
-- -· ....- .. :::-=:-:.: 3 Stocks ..,,.;;~:_._ -·- -..- mi El
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New Stock
)[
Delete
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fil fil Aladdin Systems lnc. ALHI
AOL
fi1 fi1 America Online
fil fil Apple Computer lnc_ AAPL
fil fil ATI TechnologiH
ATY
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COOL
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fi1 !if rntel
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~
Configurestocks: A preference window
allows you to specify what stocks
MacTicker will track, and what symbol
will be used for those stocks. Aladdin Systems provides a number of stocks as defaults (note the heavy technology slant),
and thoughtfully provides their own
lightly-traded stock as one of the options.
Adding stocks is quite easy, and the
Lookup option assists in looking up stock
information on select Web sites.
tronauts, and victorious sports teams.
Electronic ticker tapes, created with
tens of thousands of lights, are a virtual hallmark of New York City, appearing on buildings in Times Square
and at Times Square wannabes scattered around the city.
All that and more can be yours
with MacTicker, an electronic ticker
tape from Aladdin Systems, best
known for their Stuffit compression
package. MacTicker doesn't provide
wealth and celebrity, of course, but
you can use it without the expense of
replacirig all those light bulbs in the
moving billboards, or constantly recycling miles of paper tape.
MacTicker is a small program that
allows an Internet-connected
Macintosh to reach out and grab
slightly delayed stock market information. This information can be displayed in a number of usercustomizable ways, the most useful
36 Washington Apple Pi Journal
being a scrolling electronic ticker at
"MacTicker is a small prothe top or bottom of the screen. Color
coding (using user-definable colors)
gram that allows an Internetallows you to tell at a glance if things
connected Macintosh to
are going well or badly on Wall Street.
You can add or delete stocks quite
reach out and grab slightly
easily, attending only to those stocks
delayed stock market inforof personal interest. Alerts can be set
to trigger if the stock changes by a
mation. This information can
user-specified amount. If you want
be displayed in a number of
more information about a stock, just
double-click on the symbol as it scrolls
user-customizable ways, the
by and a box with more details pops
most useful being a scrolling
up. From here, you can even launch a
Web browser and go directly to a Web
electronic ticker at the top or
page filled with almost everything
bottom of the screen. Color
you could want to know about that
stock, including recent wire service
coding (using user-definable
postings.
.
colors) allows you to tell at a
Installation is a breeze. MacTzcker
can be purchased and downloaded
glance if things are going well
directly from Aladdin Systems' Web
or badly on Wall Street."
site, in a purely electronic transaction.
Or (for more money) they
can mail you a CD-ROM
(which also includes demo
versions of Aladdin's other
programs). Aside from defining your own personal
Proxy Authorization
.. · ·1
preferences, there is almost
!
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nothing you need to do to
get MacTicker going - proPassword
1
vided you have an active
-·---- .... _________________
_;
Internet connection.
DefaultReportView _ _ _ _ __,
Running on a blue-andI
Stocks I> Symbol Q Name
white Power Macintosh G3,
I
Funds Q Symbol f) Name
MacTicker is unobtrusive.
Indexes
G Symbol I) Name
Tucked down on the bottom
edge of a 17-inch monitor, it
was out of sight and out of
mind. The 2.8 megabytes of
memory it uses by default
were not missed (this particular machine had 192
D Advanced Settings
megabytes of RAM). No
D Close Connection After Updates
measurements were taken to
see if it slowed the perfor( cancel J([ OK )J
( Apply J
mance of the machine,
mostly because it didn't interfere with anything at all Preferencesadvanced: The advanced prefe~enc~s allow
so: why bother? These re- you to set such items as proxy authorization (for
sults would differ, of course, firewalls, not corporate boardroom battles), as well
on a slower machine with as specify a site for on-line trading.
l
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iiL_E_n_a-bl_e_T-ra-d-in_g_S_it-e~~~~~~~~l-,1
March I April 2000
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n
OK
Preferencesalerts: MacTickler can be set to alert
you to drastic changes in stock price, with the
definition of"drastic," the color ofthe alert, and
any special formatting (blinking, bold, underline, italic) all under user control.
Preferen.c~~
Appurance
Ticker Speed [ Medium
I:=::====~
Ticker Position I Bottom
~=====.;::~
,__
Ticker Window I....._
No Frame
Ticker Direction Rlghtto Left
____
0 FloatTlcker Above AppllcatJans
r: Dlsplay ______·-·-lif Stock Symbol Ii) Current Price
D Stock Name Ii) Price Change
1 0 Trade Volume Ii) Percent Change
1
Lil
r
j Quote Style Mixed (Exchange)
I~ I
,_ TexL_ _·---··-·--1 Font Geneva
!~] Size 14
!~
I
I
I
I
I
Gaining
~
Unchanged
Losing
[!!)
8aclcground •
~
[
1
--·---·-·-·..J
l... ···-·-········-·--····-·--·-····--··....·-···-------·-··..
I Apply I
I cancel ) ~
OK
fl
Preferencesappearance: There are many different options for determining how MacTicker
displays on the screen. As it ships, MacTicker
comes with a thoughifully-selected series of
defaults, but if you really do want it to stream
across the top of your screen at breakneck
screen, directly on top of anything else you
are doing, displayed in garnish neon colors,
yes, you can do that.
March I April 2000
less memory and, in particular, a
As far as electronic toys go,
smaller monitor.
MacTicker is a winner.
MacTicker, like several other recent Aladdin products, will notify
you of updates as they are available.
On the plus side, it always asks if you
want to update, rather than going
out and updating itself without your
consent. On the minus side, the only
update attempted during the period
of review (updating from MacTicker
1.6 to 1.6.2) resulted in a machine
lockup: after agreeing to download
the update, MacTicker launched the
browser, the browser went to
Aladdin's update page, and
promptly froze the machine. This exercise was repeated a couple times
until eventually downloading the
update "manually" by simply
launching the browser (without
MacTicker's aid) and grabbing the update.
MacTicker's only real
constraint is, of course, the
need for an active Internet
connection. While it does
work just fine over a dialup account, it works best, of
Canadian ~~~~;;;g:r..:J
course, over a full-time
Update I smlnutes .: Li)
Internet connection. Natu[]Always
force detailed update
rally, it is also much more
interesting when the stock
~liitMutuol Funds
market is actually open; on
L Update I2 hours
weekends and holidays,
liJ Indexes --MacTicker doesn't do much.
1
_update I. 5 minutes
Even if you are not a
hard-core
speculator,
MacTicker is worth the
money simply for its entertainment value. You can, for
example, use it as a news
source: track a couple dozen
( cance1llJ OK Q
( ApP!Y )
interesting stocks, wait for
some interesting changes in
Preferencessource: MacTicker does not, of
their value, and then, with
course, create the information it displays.
a few clicks, you can be at a
Instead, it goes out and periodically sucks the
Web page, discovering that
information off well-known Web sites. You
the company in question
can specify where it goes for this information.
won or lost a lawsuit, was
Keep in mind, however, that all stock Web
purchased or is purchasing
site postings are deliberately delayed, so insomeone else, or their latest
formation displayed on your screen will alproduct is a success or a diways be 15 minutes or more out of date.
saster.
J
Washington Apple Pi Journal 37
I
EXPRESSNET, High
Speed Web Access
Through Cable TV
Montgomery
by Joe Belotte
H
ERE IS YET another article on Cable Internet.
Yet another spin off from Don Essick's article in
the March/ April Pi Journal. Thanks, Don. It's hard
to believe time goes so fast.
What if you want high-speed access in Bethesda, Montgomery county, etc and the DSL lines won't reach your
home? If, by chance, you are a newcomer like me, and don't
know the difference between PPP and Remote Access or
LAN and TCP /IP, it could be a little difficult. It was for
me. But with the help of my Apple Pi friends I braved not
only my own complete lack of knowledge and experience
but also CTVM, Cable TV Montgomery, which, incidentally does not support the Macintosh platform.
All I needed to know was the phone number of Cable
TV Montgomery and the phone number for the Apple Pi
bulletin board. I didn't even know what PPP or TCP /IP
was, and in the process of getting on I accumulated 21
pages of notes, mostly explanations I got from Pi members over the TCS.
If I can do it anybody can! Actually, it is very simple
- once you understand the instructions.
Why would you want to get on high-speed cable? Well,
only you know the answer to that.
Why would you want ExpressNet? Probably, only if
you live in Bethesda and can't get DSL.
But ExpressNet really isn't all that bad.
Here is what I found out from CTVM (Cable TV Montgomery):
1. They do not support the Macintosh.
2. They use a one-way cable set-up, uploads go out via
modem and downloads come in on cable.
3. There is software that can handle that on my Mac, but
4. They do not support the Macintosh.
5. If I could figure out how to get on myself they will be
glad to take my money,
38 Washington Apple Pi Journal
6. They would give me a one month trial and return my
month's charge if I couldn't make it work.
7. The cost is $49.00/mo.
8. They do not support Macintosh.
If you are a novice like I am you will need a little help.
This article should provide it. To me, PPP was something I
used to do in the snow when I was a kid. Frankly, I still
don't know what it means, but I do know how to use it now.
I got my help from friends on the Pi TCS, a bit at a
time. In the beginning I didn't even know what to ask.
When I got answers I didn't know what they were talking
about. So, there was a lot of back and forth on it. As a result I promised that I would put it all together for any one
else who might like to follow.
Here is what you do
1. Call CTVM and sign up for ExpressNet service. There
will be no installation charge (and no installation). And
they will give you the modem free. (Of course you have to
return it some day.) When you sign up you will agree on a
screen name and password. They are case sensitive.
When talking with the ExpressNet representative, be very
sure he or she writes down the same screen name and password you do, exactly. They botched my password and it
took quite a while to figure out what the problem was.
They will also give you several sheets of instructions telling you how to set up - provided you are using Windows 95 or 98. Remember, they do not support Macs. Do
not toss the instructions. Although they are not for you,
you will find several important clues there.
2. With your current ISP go to http:l/www.sustworks.com
and get an application called IPNetRouter. It is approximately $89. You will use this, along with Remote Access
(PPP) and TCP /IP to handle your connections. IPNetRouter
is a piece of software that does a whole lot of things. For
one, it gets your Mac to access the internet via both modem and cable simultaneously.
3. Make sure your regular modem is working and connected to a phone line.
4. Using a splitter and extra cable wire, connect a line from
your TV cable system to your cable modem.
5. Connect an Ethernet wire between the cable modem and
your Mac Ethernet port. When you connect the power
source to the cable modem it will initialize itself.
March I April 2000
I
6. Install IPNetRouter. Don't open it yet.
There are a lot of instructions that come with IPNetRouter
and with the CTVM package. You can read it all if you
want to, and I hope you will not get as confused as I did,
but the following instructions below should be all you
really need.
7. Set up the Remote Access (or PPP) Control Panel, entering the information given to you by ExpressNet.
Button: Registered User
Name: the screen name you chose.
Password: the password you chose.
Save password -> check.
Number: the phone number they gave you, 301.296.0001
This is an example. The exact phone number will be
found in the ExpressNet instructions under "Add DialUp Networking Connection", Step ld.
8. Next, set up TCP /IP Control Panel. This is a little more
complicated. The IPNetRouter instructions on the web
give you a lot of information, which I found somewhat
confusing. Here is the Reader's Digest version:
Open the TCP /IP Control Panel.
Under the File menu, choose Configurations.
The active configuration will be highlighted. (If not, select it. It is the one in the brackets in the title bar of the
TCP /IP window.)
Rename it "IPNetRouter." (There is a Rename button.)
Make sure it is highlighted and click "Make Active."
Again, choose "Configurations" from the File Menu and
make sure "IPNetRouter'' is hilited.
Now duplicate it. (There is a Duplicate button.)
Now rename the duplicate "EtherRouter."
Click the Make Active button.
You are back in the TCP /IP window.
In the "Connect via" popup menu, select "Ethernet."
In the "Configure" popup menu, select "Manually."
In the "IP Address" box, type "10.0.0.1"
This is an example. The exact number is supplied in
page 2 of the ExpressNet instructions under "Add and
Configure the TCP /IP Protocol." step 3d.
In the "Subnet mask" box, type "255.255.255.240"
This is an example. The exact number is also supplied
in page 2 of the ExpressNet instructions under "Add and
Configure the TCP /IP Protocol." step 3d.
The Router Address is left empty.
The Name server addr., according to ExpressNet:
208.193.112.3
208.193.112.4
I found this in the ExpressNet instructions under "Trouble
Shooting Tips" Step 5g on page 4. Check to see if your
instructions are the same.
Click "Options" and click" Active." Be sure "Load only
when needed" is not checked. Then click "Okay."
Close or Quit TCP /IP and save.
Here is the way it should be configured:
Connect via: PPP
Configure: Using PPP Server
IP Address: <will be supplied by server>
Subnet mask: <will be supplied by server>
Router Address: <Will be supplied by server>
Name server addr:
208.193.112.3
208.193.112.4
I found the Name server address in the ExpressNet instructions. under "Trouble Shooting Tips" Step 5g on page
4. Check to see if your instructions are the same.
From the Edit menu, select User Mode, and select "Advanced." An "Options" button will appear in the bottom
right corner.
Click "Options" and click "Active." Be sure "Load only
when needed" is not checked. Then click "Okay."
March I April 2000
Now launch IPNetRouter.
In the gray area there is a "Configure Interface" section. There
is a popup menu, which probably says "Ethernet". Use the
popup menu to select "PPP". Check the "IP Masquerading''
box. Make sure the two white boxes at the right are empty.
These are IP Address fields you want to leave open.
Then click "Add" and you will go on-line.
Remote Access (or PPP) will automatically dial in.
When you get a connection, new connection info will be
added in the third line of the white Interfaces section. And
the "Connect" button with change to "Disconnect."
Open your browser. Type in www.wap.org, and you
are done.
I would hope that by following these instructions, you
will have no problems whatsoever. However, if there are
any problems, first try the following:
Unplug the cable modem for 5 seconds and plug it
back in. It took me several excruciating days, twice, trying
Washington Apple Pi Journal 39
I
to figure out what I was doing wrong
before I learned that resetting the
modem is the very first thing to try if
you are having trouble.
ExpressNet does not support
Macintosh. However, there were
friendly and helpful people who were
very willing to do what they could.
One service technician didn't seem to
even know what a Macintosh computer was. But, another, although
hard to get hold of, runs a Mac at
home, and helped me through several
problems.
At one point, in order to get me
back on line, the technician had to fix a
problem by giving me a fixed address.
I don't know what it means, but it
worked. Keep that in mind just in case.
I made some comparisons between my cable connection through
ExpressNet and my wife's iMac connection through AOL. Downloads
were very, very fast. A file that took
nine minutes through AOL took 23
seconds through Expressnet, approximately 27 times faster.
Surfing, however, is a little different, it is faster, but not that much
faster. A great deal of time is wasted
surfing when "waiting for reply".
When you get a reply it comes in
quick. Large, complicated pages
download very fast. However, waiting for them to start loading seems to
take about as long as with the AOL
connection.
Surfing through the same path of
32 links, with AOL it took 832 seconds, and with ExpressNet it took 345
seconds, not quite three times faster.
With AOL the average was 26 seconds
per jump, and with ExpressNet it was
11 seconds per jump.
I spent an enormous amount of
time learning the above, because I was
coming from absolutely nowhere. I
didn't know what to ask, and I didn't
know what the answers meant. But I
am on, and I am glad, and I hope that
my efforts/lessons will be of some
help to someone else.•
40 Washington Apple Pi Journal
Click City
The Good, the Weird,
and the Vague But True
Sharing by denizens of the Pi's Telecommunications System is by no means limited to matters technical: frivolity often
runs high, as evidenced by the jambalaya
of URLs contributed for the edification,
entertainment, and sometimes bewilderment of all. Whatever the subject, someone on the TCS is sure to find it fascinating and be eager to share that enthusiasm
with others. One enterprising editor collected a bunch ofthese contributions, and
we offer them here for the delectation of
all. Enjoy!
Crazy Dancin' Feet. ..
U
NLESS YOU
have no
friends with e-mail addresses, chances are you've at
least heard of the Hampster [sic]
Dance
http://www.hampsterdance.com/
As often happens on the Web, something this silly just had to be (a) an
overnight success and (b) imitated a
zillion times over. There was the Jesus
Dance, and then a few others, and
now they've become an art form of
their own. There are web rings of
them, and collections, and <shudder>
who knows what else?
http: I /www.funlinked.com/ critter/
http:/ /www.enteract.com/
-campers I Dance I different.html
http: I I members.aol.com I
darlingal9 I ritz.html
a few Fishydances, not to mention
frogs, lobsters, turtles
http:/ /www.fishydance.com/
surfin.htm
http:/ /www.angelfire.com/in/
mypics/frog.html
http:/ /members.aol.com/
pinkbreez/ lobster.html
http:/ /members.aol.com/
darlingal9 I turtle.html
the Hampster Dance redone in a minor key with a sour nonconformist
http: I /blackandcravey.com/
web /hamster.html
or with genetically altered hamsters, ·
or hamsters in a shooting gallery
http:/ I
www.roadrunnerlOO.freeserve.co.uk/
gmhamster I ausndgmdance.htm
http://www.newgrounds.com/
assassin/hamster I
But none of them tops my new favorite
http:/ /www.startext.net/homes/
chrisl/bunny.htm
Food for the Tummy and the Soul
Holidays & Gatherings
http:/ /www.foodtv.com/holidays/ho-gl/0,1948,,00.html
For instance, there's the "Puttin' on
the Ritz" Penguin Dance
March I April 2000
Christmas Recipes
http:/ /www.christmasrecipe.com/
Gingerbread Lane
http:/ /www.gingerbreadlane.com/
Vegetarian
http: I I members.tripod.com/vegholiday I index.html
New Years
http:/ I food.epicurious.com/ e_eating/ e04_newyears/
main.html
White House Recipes
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP /First_Lady I
html/Recipes.html
Turn of the Century
NOAA's Top Weather, Water and Climate Events of the
20th Century
http: I /www.noaanews.noaa.gov I stories/ s334.htm
Readings on the Millenium Whenever problem
http: I I test.nasw.org/lists/nasw-talk/hyper I
index.html
Millenium in the Salt Lake City Tribune
http:/ /www.sltrib.com/1999/Dec/12301999/
nation_w /13830.htm
Arts and Sciences
Grim Grimm Stories
National Geographic presents this site that will read you
a bedtime story, although these unexpurgated Grimm
Brother's Fairy Tales from a 1914 translation are not exactly soothing. The twelve tales here are full of wicked stepmothers, hungry wolves, bewitched wild beasts, and all
manner of spells and curses. [You'll need RealPlayer for
this.]
http: I /www.nationalgeographic.com/ grimm/
Sea Slug Forum
From the Australian Museum the recently redesigned
Sea Slug Forum (maintained by Dr. Bill Rudman) offers
information on nudibranchs and related sea slugs such as
bubble-shells, sea hares, and side-gilled slugs.
http: I I www.austmus.gov.au/ seaslugs/
National Gallery of Art Past Exhibitions
March I April 2000
This site offers a narrative summary and key facts for
each of the more than 750 special exhibitions held from
1941through1997.
http: I I www.nga.gov I past/ pastexhibits.htm
Cora: Computer Science Research Paper Search
Visitors can conduct keyword searches over the partial
text of some 50,000 Postscript-formated computer science
research papers.
http://www.cora.justresearch.com/
Translation Resources
Glossary of cigar terms? Danish-Japanese dictionary?
Collection of Cree language lessons? It's all here: an impressive and actively maintained collection of tools for
translation professionals.
http:/ /www.xlation.com/
Make the Dirt Fly!
This overview of the creation of the Panama Canal is a
great online version of an exhibition at the Smithsonian
Institution libraries.
http:/ /www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Make-the-DirtFly I index.html
Web Tutorial
http:/ /www.zdnet.com/products/garage/html/
webpagelOl I
Basics of HTML
http:/ I www.cnet.com/ Content/Features/Howto /Basics I ssOl .html
Eight Minute Primer
http:/ /web66.coled.umn.edu/Cookbook/Win95/
HTML/MinutePrimer.html
Introduction to HTML
By Eric Meyer at Case Western Reserve University
http://wwwcwru.edu/help/introHTML/toc.html
Tutorial for Frontpage and Powerpoint
http:/ /www.microsoft.com/ education/kl2/learn.htm
Internet Detective Tutorial on using the web
http:/ I sosig.ac.uk/ desire/ internet-detective.html
Used books
http: I I www.bibliofind.com
GravenStein Apple Users Group Humor Magazine
.http: I /www.iscweb.com/ gsaug/Editors/
NL.Humor.pdf
Washington Apple Pi Journal 41
I
Internet Resources Newsletter
The December 1999 issue of Internet Resources Newsletter, the free Web resource
for academics, students, engineers, scientists, and social scientists
http:/ /www.hw.ac.uk/libwww /irn/
irn63 I irn63.html
Clip Art Review
http://www.webplaces.com/html/
clipart.htm
Biblical Resources
For scholars and students in religious
studies, an all-in-one resource site, designed
and maintained by Dr. Mark Goodacre of
the University of Birmingham, creator of
the New Testament Gateway.
http://www.bham.ac.uk/theology/
goodacre/ multibib.htm
American Mile Markers
Photographer Matt Frondorf spent six
days driving across the country from New
York City to San Francisco with a camera
hooked to his car's odometer, automatically
snapping a picture from the passenger side
every mile along the way, totaling 3,304
photos.
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/
features/ onTheRoad/home/index.shtml
Salty and Wet
Try these three links for everything you
ever dreamed of wanting to know about the
oceans, and for a wonderful collection of
photographs you can grab (all in the public
domain) and use, as long as you credit
NOAA.
http:/ /www.education.noaa.gov I
http:/ /www.photolib.noaa.gov I
http:/ /www.sanctuaries.nos.noaa.gov I
pgalleryI pgallery.html
And, for your shopping pleasure, we offer
http: I I www.mvpstore.com/ catalog/
Product.asp?PXC=l&PXS=4&PXP=589
where you will find a set of three action
figures. And who are these three plastic supermen? (All male?) They're Microsoft Network Professionals! Get a set of three for
$5.00. •
42 Washington Apple Pi Journal
Learning to Network
With the AirPort
By Edgar Durbin
'M NOT sure how this started. I was probably stampeded by the
great American Christmas Buying Rush, but there was also the more
specific Apple iBook marketing effort and multiple newspaper and
magazine articles about instant Internet access via DSL. There were also
days when I woke up to the 6 AM radio news and heard about something
that wasn't covered in the newspapers we read later at the breakfast table.
Finally, almost no news was available in any newspaper about the
America's Cup Trials, while there is an excellent web site on that event
(www.louisvuittoncup.com).
As a result of all this, in December instead of buying Christmas presents for anyone else, I was buying an iBook and an AirPort for me. I
visited one local store, but they didn't have the AirPort, and the iBooks
they had came only with Mac OS 8.6. By ordering online from
www.apple.com, I got the iBook, the AirPort, and Mac OS 9. I selected
the cheapest shipping method, and waited a little more than a week for
UPS to deliver my two packages.
After unpacking the equipment, the first capability I wanted was to
access the Internet from the breakfast table or from anywhere else in the
house. Then I would try to access files off my Quadra 800 upstairs from
the iBook. Instant Internet access via DSL was postponed until a later
time. First I had to make the iBook and AirPort work.
I made a list of my TCS Explorer settings, reading values off the PPP
and TCP /IP control panels and off the browser preferences on my Quadra
800 (See chart next page).
With these data in hand, I plugged a phone line into the iBook and
launched the Internet Setup Assistant on the iBook. The Assistant enters
data in the right places in Remote Access (the Mac OS 9 dialup software
that has replaced FreePPP and PPP) and in TCP /IP. You can't count on
your browser getting the right settings though, since the manufacturers
of the browsers want you to go to their corporate sites. You may have to
manually set your home page, news and search preferences; otherwise
they will be set to some Apple, Microsoft or Netscape corporate addresses.
After running Internet Setup Assistant, and successfully connecting to
TCS Explorer, I was ready to set up the AirPort, using the AirPort Setup
Assistant.
I disconnected the phone line from the iBook and plugged it into the
RJ-11 jack on the AirPort Base Station. I plugged in the power cord from
the AirPort power brick, then launched AirPort Setup Assistant, which
took my Internet settings from Remote Access and TCP /IP and entered
them into the AirPort modem settings. I was prompted to enter a name
and a password for a "network," meaning the AirPort Base Station. I
named mine Dulles. When the Setup Assistant finished, it connected to
the Internet. When I started my browser, it connected to TCS Explorer. To
I
March I April 2000
PPP settings
Name
first.last [Suubstitute
your first and last names]
Password
[Can leave ablank or fill in]
Number
1-301-984-4980 [For nonMarylanders]
Use protocol
PPP
Connect automatically when
launching a TCP/IP application Yes
Allow error checking and
compression on modem
Yes
word (for
Dulles, not
for
the
TCS), and
after giving
it there is a
30-second
delay, while
the Base
Station modem connects
to
wap.org.At
this point, I
can launch
m
y
browser
and
go
Use TCP header compression Yes
about my
business.
Connect via command line host No
I
can leave
TCP/IP settings
AirPort On
Connect via
PPP
all the time,
eliminating
Configure
Using PPP Server
one of these
Name server address
205.177.49.200
steps, but
205.177 .25.9
without
writing a
Browser settings
script the
Home page
http:Uwww.wap.org/explorerhome.html
process to
connect to
mailroom.wap.org
Incoming (POP) mail server
the Internet
mail server smtp. wap.org
Outgoing (SMTP}
is a couple
of
steps
News server
news.wap.org
longer than
connecting
via
my
shut down, you just close the iBook,
Quadra 800 modem, since on the
older machine I just launch the
and it goes to sleep. The default setting is to disconnect after 10 minutes
browser and the connection is made
of inactivity.
automatically by PPP. The extra step
Waking up the iBook takes about
in the AirPort process provides pass20 seconds. (It takes 3 minutes for my
word security, so that anyone with an
Quadra to turn on.) Though the deskAirPort card in their laptop cannot
top appears, if you click on the Conconnect to my network. No, I don't
believe there is another AirPort laptop
trol Strip or try to launch an application, there is not an immediate rewithin 150 feet of my Base Station, but
if there were... Transmissions between
sponse. I just click on the Control Strip
and wait for it to spring open. I then
my iBook and the Base Station are
click on the red AirPort icon on the
encrypted by default. This and other
Control Strip, and when it opens, I
settings made by the Setup Assistant
turn the AirPort On and then select
can be changed manually, using
AirPort Utility. Another application,
Dulles. I am prompted for my passMarch
I April 2000
called AirPort, can be started off the
Control Strip, to monitor signal
strength at the iBook from the Base
Station.
My next job was to connect my
Quadra 800 to the AirPort network. I had to buy a Farallon
AAUI adaptor, since the Ethernet
port on the Quadra is not an RJ45, such as the Base Station and the
iBook have. The adapter comes
with an Ethernet patch cable, but
I also had to buy a crossover cable,
which is something different. They
are made of the same sort of wire
and have the same RJ-45 plugs, but
have different pin connections, as
explained
at
http://
www.farallon.com I support I
technotes/gen/TEC 012.html. You
can read the pros and cons of crossover cables on the TCS Conference
3 Board 2 and in a good article on
the Electric Pi at http://
www.wap.org/journal I
networkingmadesimple.html. The
alternative is to use patch cables
from the Base Station and from the
AAUI adapter to an Ethernet hub.
Not having a hub (yet) I plugged
the crossover cable into the Base Station. I opened the TCP /IP control
panel on the Quadra and from the
File menu selected Configurations.
I duplicated a configuration, then renamed it Dulles. Then I made Dulles
the active configuration, and from
the Dulles window I selected Connect via: Ethernet and Configure:
Using DHCP Server. I then closed
the window and saved this new configuration. As long as I have connected to Dulles with the iBook,
when I launch a browser on the
Quadra, it shares the connection to
wap.org with the iBook. That is, I can
browse at the same time from the
iBook or the Quadra. I don't claim
this is often useful, but I can.
The more pressing reason for
plugging the Quadra into the Base
Station is to allow me to pass files
between the iBook and Quadra. Currently, I have no USB devices, so the
Washington Apple Pi Journal 43
I
only routes into the iBook are via e-mail or file sharing via
AirPort (or web sharing, perhaps, but I haven' t investigated
that yet). So far, I've found file sharing to be cumbersome.
First, I must open the AppleTalk control panel on the Quadra
and select Connect via: Ethernet. That breaks the connection
to my Hewlett Packard LaserJet printer, which is inconvenient. On the iBook in AppleTalk I select Connect via: AirPort.
No problem there. Back on the Quadra, in the File Sharing
control panel I tum File Sharing On and designate the folders or disks to share, allow guest sharing, enter user names,
passwords, etc. Then on the iBook I launch Chooser, select Apple
Share in the left side, and click on the folder or disk on the
Quadra that I have designated to be shareable. I am prompted
for usemame and password, or enter guest, and finally the
folder or disk icon appears on the iBook desktop.
The iBook was my introduction to Sherlock, since I have
been running Mac OS 8.1 on my Quadra. I have been very
pleased with this application, which resides on my iBook and
accesses search engines that have supplied plug-ins to operate with it. You can select whether or not to search at Alta
Vista, Excite, c I Net, Direct Hit, GoTo, HotBot, Infoseek,
LookSmart, and Lycos search engines. Other sites are building Sherlock plugins, which you will be able to download to
lengthen this list. Sherlock retrieves and lists pages found by
those web search engines, in relevance order. A preview window shows a few lines of information about the selected document. You can drag a document from the Sherlock window
and drop it into your browser window, to see the whole page.
The beauty of Sherlock is that you mostly bypass the ads
that fill up your screen if you use the search engines yourself. There is a small window below the preview window
with ads, presumably from the search engine whose document is currently selected. Again, your iBook comes with
some Microsoft bias built in, so if you just double click on a
document in the Sherlock window, you are apt to launch
Explorer, even if you already have launched Netscape.
Other software that came with the iBook is AppleWorks,
which is a pleasant surprise. I hadn't counted on that, but it
is nice to have something besides Microsoft apps, whose complexity I have to cope with at work. So far, all I've tried is the
word processor. I could wish for tables, but I don' t plan to
even try to move Word and Excel onto the iBook.
The iBook screen has fewer pixels than I am used to,
800x600 vice the 1152x870 on the monitor I use with m y
Quadra. That's half as many pixels. The iBook also is not as
fast as I'd expected. The Quadra has a 33 MHz 68040 processor, while the iBook has a 300 MHz G3 processor. It doesn't
seem 10 times faster, though, and there are delays, perhaps
while it is waking up or reconnecting.
I guess the next thing to do is to buy an Ethernet hub and
adapters to connect my printers to Ethernet, so that all my
computers can send them jobs directly, without file sharing.
That is for another article, though. •
44 Washington Apple Pi Journal
Because It's There:
Linux on Virtual PC
© 2000 Washington Apple Pi Labs
W
ASHINGTON Apple Pi Labs has always en-
oyed challenges. From the very beginning, when
ever that was, we strove to do the impossible,
the improbable, and sometimes the clearly silly. When
we first got our hands on a gigabyte hard drive, for example, we immediately plugged it into a Macintosh IIfx
(at that time, the file server for the Pi's bulletin board,
the TCS), and set virtual memory to a full billion bytes.
Then, flush with all this imitation memory, we launched,
simultaneously, every single application we could find,
even going so far as to install an extra 20 or 30 so we
could have them all running at once.
It was grand and glorious, a prime example of conspicuous computing. It was also painfully slow and,
admittedly, without a readily identifiable purpose, particularly when we ran out of applications before us ing
up more than a third of the memory. So: wh y?
Why would anyone in their right mind want to in8
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The advanced partitioning options of the OpenLin11x 2.3 installer were used to create several partitions in Virtual PC
3.0. This is not for the faint of heart (and, in fact, this partitioning attempt proved to be unsuccessful). Note the Virtual
PC icons at the bottom of the screen, used for changing the
screen size and accessing various types of media.
March / April 2000
I
a
S1u11
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rtllenoet cards. • . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
packaged" versions of Linux. So on a frozen January morning, with the entire East Coast shut down by a surprise
blizzard, Washington Apple Pi Labs attempted something
you probably don' t want to ever do yourself.
And, since you also probably aren' t interested in anything other than the p ictures, we'll offer jus t an executive
summary. First, Virtual PC was used to create an emulated
Vl.
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During the installation process, the installer checks out the (emulated) hardware to see what "devices" are available. A device, in
typical UNIXfashion , can be something physical, such as a CDROM drive, or a "logical" device, such as a hard drive partition.
stall an Intel version of Linux on a Macintosh? Since the
Mac doesn't use an Intel central processing unit (CPU), this
seems a strange thing to do, especially when there are perfectly good PowerPC-specific versions of Linux available.
So: why?
George Mallory, attempting to climb Mount Everest
in 1924, was asked the same simple question: why? "Because it's there" was his famous answer. On June 8, 1924,
Mallory disappeared on Everest. Seventy-five years later,
on May 2, 1999, Mallory's frozen body was found on the
mountain. No one knows if he ever made it to the top.
Half a world away and several miles closer to sea level,
Washington Apple Pi Labs still thinks Mallory had the right
idea: "Because it's there." Or at least it might be, given a
late-model translucent-cased Power Macintosh, lots of
memory, lots and lots of free hard drive space, Virtual PC
3.0 from Connectix, and one of the many "commercially
' ' ············· ·· ····· ...................... .
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c1e..1"9 up i,,,,.....,"'J .,.,., •••••••••.•••.••••
After installation, instead ofcolorful (and cn;ptic) startup icons,
Caldera's version of Linux offers nice, clear (and still cryptic)
milestones ofwhere it is in the boot process. The "Plug 'n' Play"
and "tulip" milestones are the target offrequent humor.
"It was grand and glorious, a prime example
of conspicuous computing. It was also painfully slow and, admittedly, without a readily
identifiable purpose, particularly when we
ran out of applications before using up more
than a third of the memory. So: why?"
Marc h I April 2000
Once Linux has initialized and you've signed on, you have the
option of opening up a terminal window (tty console) and trying out the famous, easy to understand UNIX CU (command
line interface).
Washington Apple Pi Journal 45
8
Caldera·
caldera OpenLlnux [rzeman-vpc]
l' I
~ ::. '"··----~
Pentium computer. Next, the default Windows operating
system was blown away. Next, the Linux installer application was fired up from CD-ROM, and Linux was installed.
And installed. And installed. (It takes a while.)
Many hours later, we had reached a conclusion: yes,
you can run Virtual PC 3.0 and, within Virtual PC, fully
install and operate Linux. If you wish, you can even run
one of the Windows-like graphical interfaces to Linux on
your emulated Pentium running on your Power Macintosh,
complete with network services. Of course, it redefines the
word "slow," but it does work.
It is also a safer way to spend your time than climbing
nearly six miles into the sky without oxygen. Why do this?
Because it's there. •
8:26
Every time you boot, you are presented with a graphical
dialog box asking for name and password. Note the pop-up
menu in the lower left offering you a choice ofinterface types.
If you select KDE (which stands for "K Desktop Environment")
when you first log in, you are presented with this cheery graphical user interface, patterned after the browser mode of Microsoft
Windows 98. Thus, after hours of work, you can stand proud,
knowing that you have a UNIX emulation of Windows 98 running on an emulated PC running on a Macintosh. The "K" in
KDE, by the way, apparently stands for nothing other than
the letter between "]" and "L. "
While not directly related to this project, this window shows a "good use" for a
Linux machine: CD-ROMs saved as Linux disk images, mounted under Linux
and shared over a network via netatalk so they can appear - and be used - on
a Macintosh desktop. Yes, there are less Byzantine ways ofdoing the same thing,
but they probably aren't nearly as entertaining
46 Washington Apple Pi Journal
March I April 2000
Hofline-The hotline service is only for members of WAP. Please do not call after 9:00 pm or before 8:00 am.
Name
Apple General
Bob Sherman
Ron Evry
Bernie Benson
Harvey Levin
Eric Sheard
Telephone
Heading
Subjects
~944-2111
Communications
Hypermedia
Miscellaneous
Programming
Spreadsheets
Allan Griff
Eric Sheard
301-654-1515 Spreadsheets
908-782-6492 Spreadsheets
DBMaster
Hyperstudio
lie Card for the LC
Apple Saipt
Advanced Vlsicalc (eves) 908782-6492 (days) ·2242
Apple Works
Visicalc (eves) 908-782-6492
(days) ·2242
Ken DeVito
703-960-0786 Telecomm
Apple//
Bernie Benson
Neil Laubenthal
Allan Griff
Ken DeVito
Paul Campbell
Ray Settle
Allan Griff
Ken DeVlto
W. T. Cook
Don Avery
Dale Smith
Allan Griff
Morgan Jopling
Milt Goldsamt
Guy Durant
Ron Evry
Harold Polk
Ken DeVlto
Dave Jernigan
Joan Jernigan
Guy Durant
Guy Durant
Ron Evry
Bob Sherman
Dave Jernigan
Joan Jernigan
Joan Jernigan
RonEvry
Allan Griff
301·951·5294
703-691-1360
301-654-1515
703-960-0786
31a.255-6497
410-647-9192
301·654-1515
703-960-0786
410-995-0352
202·362-1783
301 ·294-2287
301·654-1515
410-721-7874
301-649-2768
202·575-0414
703-490-1534
301-662-6399
703-960-0786
54D-822·5137
54D-822·5137
2<1l·575-0414
202·575-0414
703-490-1534
305-944-2111
54D-822·5137
54D-822·5137
54D-822·5137
703-490-1534
301-654-1515
Apple/le
Morgan Jopling
410-721-7874 Upgrade
Apple I/GS
Rich Sanders
Dick Grosbier
Eric Grupp
Seth Mize
Rich Sanders
703-45D-4371
301·898-5461
410-315-8331
410-766-1154
703-45D-4371
Apple I/GS
Ken Carter
301-834-6516 General
Apple///
Dave Ottalini
Paul Campbell
Seth Mize
Robert Sambolln
Steve Truax
Dave Jernigan
Paul Campbell
Dave Jernigan
Dave Jernigan
301-681-6138
31a.255-6497
410-766-1154
203-853-2512
304-26a.5749
54D-822·5137
31a.255-6497
54D-822·5137
54D-822·5137
703-490-1534
301-951-5294
301·299·9380
908-782-6492
March I April 2000
Apple SSC (Super Serial Card)
Accounting
Apple llGS
General
General
Apple Works
Apple Works
General
Apple Works
General
Apple Works
General
AppleWorks
General
Beagle Buddies
Beagle Buddies
Beagle Buddies
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Database
Apple Works
Database
Apple Works
Database
Apple Works
Epson Printers
General
General
General
Graphics
Print Shop
Print Shop
Graphics
Hard Drives
Hardware
Hypermedia
Hyperstudio
Laser Printing
Operating Systems
Operating Systems
Word Processing Apple Works II
Word Processing AppleWriter
Word Processing
DrawingfGraphics Deluxe Paint II
General
General
General
Word Processing Multiscribe GS
General
General
General
General Repair
lnteg. Packages
lnteg. Packages
Repairs
Name
Telephone
Heading
Steve Truax
304-26a.5749
Dave Jernigan
54D-822·5137
carey McGleish 31a.332-8836
Sublects
Stemspeller
Stemspeller (before 9 PM)
Word Juggler (evenings)
Cross Platform
Ken DeVito
703-960-0786 Transfers
MSJDOS-Apple-Mac
IBWCompatlbles
Etana Finkler
301-891-2821 Illustration
Tom Cavanaugh 301-627-8889 Printers
General Can call until midnight
General
Internet
Dan White
Walt Francis
Will DeKroney
Curt Harpold
Craig Contardi
Seth Mize
Jaqua Davison
JAVA
Netscape Navigator
Sailor
Web S~e Builder
301 ·84a.3287
202·966-5742
410-626-n16
301·762-0887
410-674·2752
410-766-1154
7oa.644-7354
General
General
General
Programming
World Wide Web
World Wide Web
World Wide Web
Macintosh
Nancy Seferian 202·333-0126 Art &Video
General
Robert Sambolin 203-853-2512
General
John Engberg
301-262-9347 or 301-604-8348
Basics
Tho. Sno\llberger 410-757-4656 Contact Managers Now Contact/UTD
Mort Greene
7Da.522-8743 Database
File Maker Pro
em Waring
410-647-5605 Database
Filemaker Pro
Bob Wilbur
7oa.426-0556 Database
Filemaker Pro
Rick Shaddock 202·321·2110 Database
FoxPro
Harvey Levin
301 ·299·9380 Database
Helix
Bob Wilbur
703-426-0556 Database
Helix Express
Mort Greene
703-522-8743 Database
MS-File
Dick Nugent
7oa.425-1056 Database
FileMaker Pro
EDzabeth Mangan 703-750-2710 Database
Pro-Cite
Dave Weikert
301·963-0063 Databases
Panorama
Bob Wilbur
703-426-0556 Database
General
Blake Lange
301-942·9180 Desk Top Pub.
PageMaker
Mort Greene
7Da.522·8743 Desk Top Pub.
PageMaker
Eric Grupp
410-315-8331 Desk Top Pub.
Quark Xpress
Paul Schlosser 301-831-9166 Desk Top Pub.
Quark Xpress
Ron Johnson
410-315-8764 Drawing/Graphics Adobe llustrator 3.0
Nancy Seferian 202-333-0126 Drawing/Graphics Aldus Freehand
Bob Wilbur
703-426-0556 Drawing/Graphics Canvas
Lloyd Olson
410-544·1087 Drawing./Graphlcs ClarisDraw
Etana Finkler
301·891·2821 Drawing./Graphics Freehand can call until rnkfnight
Nancy Seferian 202-333-0126 Drawing./Graphlcs General
Neil Laubenthal 703-691·1360 Drawing./Graphics General
Etana Finkler
301-891-2821 Drawing./Graphics General Can call until mkfnight
Bob Wilbur
7oa.426-0556 Drawing
General
Blake Lange
301-942-9180 Drawing./Graphics Illustrator
Etana Finkler
301·891·2821 Drawing./Graphics Illustrator Can call until midnight
Mort Greene
703-522-8743 Drawing./Graphics Photoshop
Blake Lange
301·942·9180 DrawinglGraphics Photoshop
Mort Greene
703-522-8743 Drawing/Graphics SuperPaint 2.0
Dave Jernigan
54D-822·5137 Foreign Languages FlashWorks
Dave Jernigan
54D-822·5137 Foreign Languages Greek Tutor
Dave Jernigan 54D-822·5137 Foreign Languages Hebrew Tutor
Dave Jernigan 54D-822·5137 General
3 Easy Pieces
3 Easy Pieces
3.5" Super Drive
SCSI Drives
Washington Apple Pi Journal
47
Washin gton Apple Pi Office
12022 Park/awn Drive, Rockville, MD, 20852.
M-W-F JO a.111.-6 p.111.; Tue 7 p.m-9 p.111.; Sat 9 a.m. -2:30 p.111.
Web address: www.wap.org
e-mail address: [email protected]
March 2000
Sunday
'"Wednesday
Monday I; Tuesday
,
Thursday
Columbia Slice
Clinic
6
Intemied Mac·Pl
Graphics Intro
PbotoDelw2 intro
1 ;r~
!1Uenned Mac-P2
'I
~
~
Clinic
20
111..
.,
,·~
Clinic
27
26
14
jl{zsil i Mac-P2
~
..,
17 "
18
Linux Slice
M::pous
,.,~
23
NM!r
24 '
AP
I:.
25
"
~eneral
Meeting
~
'I
29
30
Ww Page \Vorkmp
Outlook F.x. e-mail
Mvanced Mac-Pl
•~
11
Gra£hics SIG
Fre erick Slice
/n/70 to Mac-P2
iVisiJiMac-P2
Quarlt-lnllo
~
1
10
Apple\florlts ln110
IntennedMac-P2
fare/ -!tum
Retired SIG
28
~
AOL e-mail
Netxape e-mail
16
22 '
21
9
.,
...
F.xcel SIG
..,
i '·.
,
Stock SIG
15
Intro to Mac-Pl
iVisiJiMac-Pl
PageMaker intro
i VisiJ i Mac-P1
.r=="'
WAPBoD
Geneology SIG
19
Introto Mac-P2
ltUemeJ Intro
IntennedMac-Pl
Iii.
.:f""""'~
Clinic
13
8
!X:anner Intro
ApJ1e i-Tools
Intro to Mac-Pl
TCS-Inllo
Pbotorlx>p 2
~
12
7
,
4
De/Marva Slice
Intro to frlt~
J.pple\'i'orlts 6
QuickTime
MS\'i'ord Intro
;;::
5
Saturday
3
2
1
Nmwrlting
Quicken·Intro
Pbotoshopl
linuxGinic
Friday
-:;:;i"
31
Niobe (,(}[Jw intro
lntemel Dumloading
l:l.
,ll
WAP Office Phone: 301- 984-0300
TCS 2400 bps: 301-984-4066;
TCS 14400 bps: 301-984-4070
April 2000
I
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
,
30
Wednesday
,
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
~
(,
De/Marva Slice
2""
,
3
If
lnlemel Intro 1Q
lnlennedMac-P2
i-ToolsHomePage
It
-~
~:;:::=--=---=
23
....
~
24
1vw Page \Vorkmp
IJ~
Clinic
11
Geneology SIG
Clinic
Graphics !tum
Plx>toDelu:xe lru10
,
i'i:.
~-
!tum to Mac-P2
5"
Ap/XeWorks 6
Pbotorlx>p 1
18
iVisiJiMac-PI
Intro to Mac-Pl
.....
Clinic
25
Mvanced Mac
IUU$"t/lorIntro
MS \fiord Intro 6
Intro to Mac-P2
Jlpfieumks-Intro
Columbia Slice
P{J[kwrlts-Mv
\VAP BoD
Rtcel SIG
It11en1e1 Dum/oiding
Outlook F.x. e-mail
lnJennedMac-P2
--
I•vt.
ISlll·i11iac-P2 20
111110 to Mac·P2
F.xcel ln110
21
Mobe~liw
1ll~:polis
~c;
AP
22
,
Aner~l
eetmg
[\l
27 Ii
26
15 '
14
13
~Intro
..,
Retired SIG
a'
-·--·- ~
Stock SIG
!X:anner!tum 19
Digital Camera Intro
7
AW/J!IVori&New:ittrs Graphics SIG
Frederick Slice
~
AOL e-mail 12
Ne&apeCom e-mail
., ,,:;;:k
--;:;::;:.·
c;-..;c.;..
~~
lnlennedMac-Pl
iVisiJ iMac-Pl
17
16
4
! i..
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Intro to Mac-Pl
TCS-Intro
Intro to Mac-Pl
ApJ1e i-Tools
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9'
...
29 ,
28
1vw Graphics
11~
Unless otherwise noted, call the SIG chairs or Slice officers for meeting information. A list of the SIG and Slice
chairs is on page 3 of every Journal. Calendar events in italics are tutorials, workshops or seminars.
48
Washington Apple Pi Journal
March I April 2000
Annapolis Slice
3rd Saturday; 9:30 AM; Severna Park Library on
McKinsey Rd. (off Rt. 2), Severna Park, MD
Answering Machine: (410) 647-5605
AOL SIG, contact John Barnes at
[email protected] or in the evening
at 301 I 652-0667.
Apple III SIG
Quarterly on 2nd Saturday; 10:00 AM;
WAPOffice.
Columbia Slice
1st Thursday; 7:00 PM. Call for location
BBS (410) 964-3706
DataBases (Mac) SIG
Volunteers needed to restart this SIG
Delmarva Slice
At the campus of Salisbury State University, but
will rotate throughout Delmarva area when appropriate. Email Shelly Wetzel form more information. <[email protected]>
Excel SIG
3rd Wednesday; 7:30 PM; WAP office.
FileMaker Pro SIG
3rd Thursday; 7:30 PM; W AP office.
Frederick Slice
General meeting time, 2nd Saturday; 10:00 AM;
United Methodist Church; 22 Main Street in
Walkersville.
Game SIG
1st Thursday; 7:30 PM; Call for location.
Genealogy SIG
2nd Tues. of the month; 10 AM to noon; W AP
office.
Graphic Arts SIG
2nd Saturday of the month
Linux SIG
Contact William Byrd at [email protected] for
information.
Mac Programmers' SIG
Volunteers needed to restart this SIG
Newton Developers' SIG
Volunteer needed
NoVa Education (Ed) SIG
Call SIG chair for times & locations.
QuickTime SIG
2nd Tuesday of each month; 7:30 PM; W AP
office.
Retired SIG
4th Wednesday of each month; 11AMto2 PM;
each meeting will have a topic, but be run
informally. WAP office.
Stock SIG
2nd Thursday; 7:30 PM; W AP Office. (Morris
Pelham who chairs StockSIG is Sysop of the
Investment/StockSIG board on the TCS.
Contact him on that board.)
Telecomm SIG
Call SIG chair for times & locations.
WAP Garage Sale-upcoming in June
W AP General Meeting
4th Saturday; 9:00 AM; Northern Virginia
Community College, Annandale Campus,
Community Cultural Center Auditorium.
Women's SIG
At the Pi Office at 6:00 PM dinner ($2) followed
by 7:00 PM meeting/presentation. Call SIG
chair. Next meeting: March 23, 2000.
N9ti-;~: }11~ ch~~e!An;ypne. \\'it,ll ~Cl!~B~r i¥e>npat!?n a!ea~~ C~tl\~ Ca!e.n~(lJ: E~tor,
· B~ Wydro (301) 299~526.7 or Befh Medlin at the WA].> Office (301) 984-0300.
March I April 2000
Washington Apple Pi Journal
49
Hotline-The hotline service is only for members of wAP. Please do not call after 9:00 pm or before 8:00 am.
Name
Telephone
Joan Jernigan
540·822-5137
Dan White
301 ·843-3287
Dick Grosbier
301·898-5461
Russell Robinson 301-739-6030
Eric Seidel
540-667-5289
Eric Seidel
540-667-5289
Robert Sambolin 203-853-2512
Neil Laubenthal 703-691-1360
Tom Cavanaugh 301-627-8889
Tom DeMay
410-461-1798
Tom Witte
703-683-5871
Bob Wilbur
703·426-0556
Jim Kelly
301 ·926-2949
Henry Miller·Jones703·478-3721
Heading
General
General
General
General
General
General
General Repairs
General
General
General
General
General
General
Answering Syst.
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March I April 2000
Telecommunications
Help Sheet
A quick reference sheet for use while on the TCS
TCS Phone Numbers:
-301-984-4066
(for 300, 1200, 2400 bps)
-301-984-4070
(for 9600, 14400, 28800 bps)
Main Menu
<B> ...... Bulletin Boards
<C> ..... Change Conferences
<E> ..... E-Mail
<F> ...... File Transfer
<L> ...... General Library
<M> .... Membership Search
<N> ..... Now On System
<0> ..... Off the System
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<X> ..... eXamine Weather
Forecast
File Transfer Menu
<A> ..... Adjust Pointers
<G> ..... Global Read New
Descs
<L> ...... List All Available Areas
<N> ..... New File Descriptions
<0> ..... Off the System
<Q> ..... Quit to Main Menu
<R> ..... Read All New Descs
<Z> ..... Zelect File Areas
Fiie Area Menu
<A> ..... Alphabetical List
<B> ...... Batch Functions
<C> ..... Change File Area
<D> ..... Download a File
<F> ...... Find File Descriptions
<H> ..... Help With File Transfer
<I> ....... Info on File Contents
<L> ...... List All Files
<M> .... Mark Files for Downloading
<0> ..... Off the System
<Q> ..... Quit to Main Menu
<R> ..... Read File Descriptions
<T> ...... TitleScan Descriptions
<U> ..... Upload a File or Files
<W> .... Welcome Bulletin
Editor Menu
<A> ..... Add to File
<C> ..... Clear File in Memory
<D> ..... Delete a line from File
(#)
<E> ...... Edit a Line (#)
<F> ...... Find a String
<G> ..... Global Search &
Replace
<I> ....... Insert Lines into File(#)
<L> ...... List the File (#)
<M> .... Toggle Reply Mode
<N> ..... Line Numbering Mode
On/Off
<P> ...... Purge Temporary File
<Q> ..... Quit - Clear File & Exit
<R> ..... Read back from Temporary File
<S> ...... Save File and Exit
Editor
<T> ...... Write File to Temporary
File
<U> ..... Upload Mode Toggle
(No Reply Mode)
<V> ..... View Temporary File
<X> ..... Exchange a String
within line{#)
<"> ...... Modify Reply Mode
Characters
Change Conference Menu
<1-8> ... Choose Conference
Number
<L> ...... List Conferences
Available
<Q> ..... Quit to Main Menu
<1> ...... General Conference
<2> ...... Apple II Conference
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<5> ...... Global General Conference
<6> ...... Global Apple II Conference
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Conference
<8> ...... Global Miscellany
Conference
Conference Menu
<A> ..... Adjust Pointers
<C> ..... Change Conference
<G> ..... Global Read All New
Msgs
<L> ...... List All Available
Boards
<0> ..... Off the System
<Q> ..... Quit to Main Menu
<R> ..... Read All New Msgs
<W> .... Welcome Bulletin
<X> ..... Xfer All New Msgs
<Z> ..... Zelect Boards of Interest
Bulletin Board Menu
<A> ..... Alter I Edit an Existing
Message
<B> ...... Blind Reply to a Msg by
Number
<C> ..... Change Boards
<D> ..... Delete Msg From or To
You
<E> ...... Enter a Message
<F> ...... Find Message by
Keyword
<L> ...... Library for this Board
<0> ..... Off the System
<Q> ..... Quit to Main Menu
<R> ..... Read a Msg or Msgs
<5> ...... Scan Message Headers
<T> ...... TitleScan Msg Headers
<W> .... Welcome Bulletin for
Board
<X> ..... Xfer (Download) a Msg
or Msgs
User Preferences
<A> ..... Alter Password
<E> ...... Emulation Mode
<F> ...... File Transfer Protocol
<P> ...... Prompt Character
<Q> ..... Quit to Main Menu
<R> ..... Reply Mode Prefix
<V> ..... Video Length
<X> ..... Expert/Novice Prompts
<Y> ..... Your Current Status
Electronic Mail Menu
<B> ...... Blind Reply to a Letter
<D> ..... Delete Letters
<E> ...... Enter a Letter
<F> ...... Find Letters
<H> ..... Help /Brief Tutorial
<I> ....... Info on Letters
<K> ..... Keep Letters
<L> ...... List Letters
<0> ..... Off the System
<Q> ..... Quit to Main Menu
<R> ..... Read Letters
<S> ...... Scan Headers of Letters
<T> ...... TitleScan Letters
<X> ..... Xfer (Download) Letters
Please see page 50for ·the T€S Help Hotline phone .numbers~
March I April 2000
Washington Apple Pi Journal
51
I
Best of the TCS
compiled and edited by John Ludwigson
Under the Hood, or
What Makes the TCS
Run ....
Poke a Penguin and, often, out pours all
sorts offtm and useful information about
how things work. At the Pi, the innermost sanctum is the TCS room, or closet
as it is sometimes irreverently (but accurately) known. Within its air-conditioned
confines, the Penguin crew labors mightily to head offpotential problems and solve
those that pop up and bite us. Here's a
peek behind the veil. First, the news....
P
ENGUIN Alpha: To avoid
sudden support headaches, this
announcement is going out here
first for those of you who stay tuned
in. We've been able to change a couple
things about TCS Explorer to make
them easier to use, without requiring
any changes for those of you who are
already up and running.
Improvement One: The PPP Connection Process-The dial-up equipment
can now autosense PPP vs commandline calls, and we've configured it to
do so. This means you can optionally
tum off "connect to a command-line
host" in your PPP (or Remote Access)
settings. And new members no longer
have to be walked through locating
and importing the connection script.
If you decide to switch off "connect
to a command-line host" in the control panel, you might be able to shave
off as much as a second or two of the
process of connecting to TCS Explorer.
(There's a brief delay in order for
52 Washington Apple Pi Journal
autosensing to work, and you can
minimize it by switching from the
connection script to PPP authorization.) If this paragraph doesn't make
complete sense to you already, my
advice is that you continue with your
working system as is and only maybe
return to the issue the next time you
reinstall Mac OS. There's no shame in
sticking with what works.
Improvement Two: E-mail Addresses-We're going to go ahead and
drop the "tcs" from our e-mail addresses, and let everyone use
"@wap.org" if they're so inclined.
"@tcs.wap.org" will continue to work,
so you don't need to run out and notify all your correspondents. But we
just like the shorter addresses, they' re
easier to remember, and the reasons
for keeping tcs.wap.org separate behind the scenes are no longer significant.
Any mail sent to you @wap.org now
shows up the exact same place as arty
mail sent to you @tcs.wap.org, and
you pick it up the same way. No differences.
If you decide to take advantage of
your "@wap.org" address in your
own e-mail program, the only change
you should make is in the "Return
Address" field. All other settings SMTP and POP servers, POP accounts ... they shouldn't change.
Reiteration: Nothing Needs Done On
Your Side-These are two simple usability improvements that we think
people will enjoy, but they're both
backwards-compatible with your existing configurations. Feel free to
tweak your settings if you'd like, or
not. Either way, have fun! I;+ I
[Somewhat later, a typically informative
exchange took place on an all-too-familiar topic: "can't connect".]
Pi-ster 1: Might the authentication
server be whacked again? The modems answer and connect, but "authentication failed" is where things
end. (as of 4:41 PM, Tuesday, December 14, 1999) I'll check some more
here, but if history is a guide....
Sorry about the bad news!
Pi-ster 2: Same problem: 12/14/1999
@5:02PM
Pi-ster 3: Same problem here, I suppose, although I was on a Windows
machine and anything is possible. I
ran the script, was told it was "verifying user name and password," and
then received the message "unable to
establish a connection."
Pi-ster 4: Probably the same problem
but with the AirPort I am working
blind. 12/14/99@ 6:11pm.
Penguin Alpha > Might the authentication server be whacked again?
Actually the authentication server
hasn't been whacked for quite some
time now. In case it gets confused, it
quits, and a watchdog process picks
it up within a few seconds and gets
authentication up and running again.
(Plus it maintains a log file of this behavior, and it sends me an immediate
e-mail notification.)
However, for the dial-up controller to
see the authentication server (or for
the rest of the world to see wap.org
in general), the firewall has to be up
and alert and routing packets to the
right places. Every now and again our
firewall is getting overwhelmed and
March I April 2000
I
confused, and requiring attention.
In nearly all cases, when this has happened it's caused sporadic behavior
- some large percentage of packets
(maybe 40% or so) get dropped.
Things keep running, in general, but
sometimes it takes several calls before
dial-up goes through completely. And
DNS lookup can take extra long, and
web pages come up with most of their
images missing, that sorta thing large scale but not complete packet
loss. It took me a while to experiment
with this (it doesn't happen often
enough to be able to really try the
sorts of things I'd want to try to isolate the trigger circumstances), but
I've gotten to where I can now catch
this problem soon after it happens,
and restart the firewall from home.
This time around the circumstances
were new. The firewall had completely frozen, with the test light on.
No response to anyone, either from
here or presumably from home. This
is a behavior we'd thankfully not yet
ever seen.
And somewhat to my embarrassment, it must've happened just before
I walked out the door to the Pi office.
I showed up at 3:30 to meet with
someone and help with a non-TCS
project, and that person wasn't here.
So I checked the boards for anything
requiring my attention, and then I
stepped out for dinner and a bit of
shopping. When I got back at 5:45 I
got your message, investigated, and
got things working just before 6pm.
<shrug>
One thing: even if there'd been a
dozen messages on the subject, I don't
think I would've been able to address
the situation any earlier. I don't quite
know what to do with "me too" messages, as they take time and attention
away from solving the problem - although I do understand that others
may find them comforting. They
March I April 2000
don't help explain what's going on,
and as they age in the system they
drown out the explanations and actually cause confusion - but for that
period of time (an hour? several?) before I get things under control I understand that they provide comfort to
interested persons in an "it's not just
me" sorta way. Makes sense. Still,
then they sit there - and some 60%,
80%, whatever of the people who read
them are not affected by the problem,
"I am interested in
getting a cable modem, once they are
available in my area. I
was wondering,
however, what kind of
security issues there
are (if any). Would I
need to do something
along the lines of
establishing a
firewall? And how
would I do this?"
and thus they see the opposite effect:
"maybe there's something wrong that
I'm not seeing". And "maybe that's
responsible for the 404 errors I keep
getting from that site I used to like",
and (believe it!) even "is this why I
can't print?"
I don't know what to propose about
this other than to thank the person
who first points out something and
to quietly grumble to myself about the
"me too" effects. Do you think it
might be too much to ask that people
amend their messages after the crisis
is cleared, so that anything chicken
littlish now says "[see msg #NNNN
for the solution]" at the end? Some
people have trouble following message threads, so Examine Replies isn't
going to find their answer.
I know, what a grouch. :}But these are
the things that go through my mind
while driving from state to state to
deal with issues like this. I thought I'd
at least let people know the patterns I
see, and ask for understanding.
Pi-ster 5: >I don't know what to propose about this other than to thank the
person who first points out something
Don't know or understand all the
magic you perform to accomplish
what you do on the TCS but, since in
one instance you're able to generate a
email notification of a problem, is it
possible to have a automatic TCS
posting be generated and posted on
this Board? It could say something
like "A problem occurred with the
widget Mac and interrupted email
service, it has now been resolved."
Penguin Alpha:> Don't know or understand all the magic you perform
to accomplish....
Not a bad thought, but I'm unclear on
what we'd gain from the work. Once
I have enough data on a problem to
be able to catch it while it's happening and trigger an automatic correction, the problem no longer affects
TCS Explorers. Every ISP does this:
watchdog processes keep track of
their server processes, and problems
are caught and recovered automatically. (Once the nature of the problem
and/ or its solution is well-understood. The first occurrence of a problem is tough to anticipate.)
If I'm online from home, and I spot a
problem that'll require my driving in,
maybe I should be better about post-
Washington Apple Pi Journal 53
ing a message there saying "I see it gimme half an hour to get to Rockville
and see what I can surmise." But in
general when a problem requires that
kind of attention, there's no way for
me to post a notice and no way for
you to receive it until it's all past tense.
In general, I think I've been pretty
good at explaining the past tense stuff.
If what you're asking is merely a curiosity issue, I can show you the complete set of logs from when the RADIUS authorization/ authentication
server process has crashed. I caution
you again: this log's only valid use is
in looking for patterns. Off-the-shelf
software fails sometimes, and this log
shows us only the automatic corrections thereof. (The watchdog process
checks once a minute to see if RADIUS is running, and corrects it and
logs a message when it's not.)
RADIUS recovered from crash at Mon
Oct 11 03:57:00 EDT 1999
RADIUS recovered from crash at Wed
Oct 2019:57:01EDT1999
RADIUS recovered from crash at Thu
Oct 21 05:01:00 EDT 1999
RADIUS recovered from crash at Fri
Oct 2910:41:00EDT1999 .... <snip>
Prior to this automatic correction,
we'd had half a dozen or so such
crashes across a couple months.
Enough to give me the information I
needed to have the problem handled
automatically starting in mid-October.
By the way, the log above is from the
older server, a fairly slow (for Mac OS
X Server purposes) 7500 running the
Cistron RADIUS software release
1.5.4.3. Since the beginning of the
month we've been slowly introducing a much faster G3 system, and
that's now running Cistron RADIUS
1.6.1 (while we wait for further development in the FreeRADIUS project).
Here's the new guy's log, in toto:
54 Washington Apple Pi Journal
RADIUS recovered from crash at Thu
Dec 916:07:58EST1999
So, whenever possible I prefer to focus my attention on making problems
not happen in the first place. If that
isn't possible, or doesn't yet seem
possible given the available information, I aim toward prompt notification
of the authorities (usually me) for the
dual purposes of data collection and
rapid recovery.
I see value in spelling out what's happening, including big picture context
and small picture experiments, and in
answering people's many follow-up
questions and suggestions. But when
it gets down to it, it's better to do these
things during times when there isn't
an immediate crisis demanding my
attention. And of course, when there
isn't an immediate crisis, I also like to
focus my attention on new developments and forward-looking changes
- both as a personal preference and
as my hunch as to what's better for
the Pi in the long run.
GOSUB
Among those who worship at the Church
of the Mac, programmers surely are the
high priests. But even they have their
problems. Once again, the veil lifts ...a
little bit.
Puzzler: It's 1963 and I need to know
the FORM of the gosub statement in
BASIC..
Greybeard: Easy: the command and
then a line number, as in: GOSUB 2104
Make sure you leave columns 1-7
empty. GOSUBs are normally nested
in a loop, as in:
10 DO 100 I=l to 10
IF X<Z THEN X = X + I
GOSUB2104
[etc.]
Actually, I'm not sure BASIC existed
in 1963, so my example, come to think
of it, is more WATFIV FORTRAN than
BASIC. Be sure to stack your punch
cards neatly.
Wiz: >It's 1963 and I need to know
the FORM of the gosub statement in
BASIC.
BASIC was 1970, wasn't it? And I'm
not sure what you mean by "FORM"
but the exact syntax will vary by dialect. For example, Applesoft BASIC
and Apple Integer BASIC are both
strictly line-numbered dialects. So a
GOSUB statement has a single numeric argument which is evaluated as
the line number of the next statement
to be executed.
In Applesoft BASIC this argument
must be a constant number (go
Microsoft), so the statement takes the
form "GOSUB 50" or similar. In the
earlier Integer BASIC it's the result of
a numeric expression, so it can be
something like "GOSUB A* 1000"
and evaluate to 1000, 2000, 3000...
More recent dialects encourage the
use of alphanumeric labels in addition
to or in lieu of line numbers. So the
statement
"gosub
CalculateNextNumber" may have
meaning if there's a label in the program by that name. I don't know the
syntax for any specific dialects that do
this.
Puzzler: >Easy: the command and
then a line number, as in: GOSUB 2104
Thanks, but I guess I asked the wrong
question. Here's a (really) simple BASIC program. What's wrong?
>10 input a,b
>20 gosub 30
>30 c=a/b
>40 return
>50 print a,b ,c
>run
?2
?? 3
March I April 2000
RETURN without GOSUB in line 40
I think my question should have been:
How does the subroutine know what
the input and output variables are?
Puzzler to Wiz: I see by our date
stamps that I sent my message
00:01:24 after you sent yours (on the
rash assumption that the clocks are
synchronized). My reply to
(Greybeard) shows what I really
wanted to know rather than what I
asked. Thanks.
Please excuse the "1963!" I picked a
number out of a Recycle Bin (if you'll
excuse the expression).
Puzzler: Or this one:
>10 input a,b
>20 gosub40
>30 print a,b,c
>40c=a/b
>50retum
>run
? 2,3
2
3
0.666667
RETURN without GOSUB in line 50
Wiz: >Please excuse the "1963!" I
picked a number out of a Recycle Bin
Don't worry about that, I was just testing my own knowledge. (The scary
part is that I have a strong hunch
BASIC was invented at Dartmouth in
1970, only I have absolutely no idea
why I think that, and I wasn't even
born then.)
>Here's a (really) simple BASIC program. What's wrong?
Trace through it, step by step. First
you visit 10, then 20, which gosubs to
30, then continues to 40, -then retumsto complete the gosub on line 20, continues onward to 30, then to 40, then
hits a second RETURN without a corresponding second GOSUB, hence the
error. If you want the program to stop
March I April 2000
after the GOSUB, try inserting "25
end".
>How does the subroutine know
"If you set up a network in your office,
you presumably know
everyone else on the
network. They, presumably, share the
same goals you do:
success of your organization. (If they
don't, they should
become _former_
coworkers.)"
what the input and output variables
are?
Traditionally, BASIC doesn't have local variables. If A and B change values in the middle of the subroutine,
then return to the main program, A
and B in the main program will have
changed as well. (They're exactly the
same A and B, throughout the entire
program.)
Some of the newer dialects, those
which support labeled procedures
rather than straight line numbers, do
support the concept of local variables,
passed parameters, and other manner
of context and scope. I don't know the
syntax of any of those dialects they're all nonstandard extensions,
indispensably useful as they are ...
Puzzler: >Trace through it, step by
step ....
Oops, you're right.
10 input a,b
20 gosub 30
30 c=a/b
40 return
50 print a,b,c
Does that mean it did line 30 twice?
I have a feeling I'm remembering
pieces of PLI and Fortran and trying
to put them into BASIC, but thanks.
Wiz: >Does that mean it did line 30
twice?
I suspect it did. Again, I don't know
what interpreter/ compiler you're using, so I can't comment on its specific
dialect.
> I have a feeling I'm remembering
pieces of PLI and Fortran ....
Wow! Beats me - I've never written a
PL/l program, though I've had to
look through a couple to figure out
why a server wasn't cooperating with
some C libraries I was working on.
Fortran's a little more familiar... but
just a little. :}
I started with BASIC on my own,
which seemed to be pretty much the
standard approach at the time. I was
taught Pascal in high school, picked
up assembler and C both somewhere
thereafter, then was taught C++ in
college. (Not counting the course that
taught me Lisp, ML, and a bunch of
other theory languages I can't remember at all.) I still work with Applesoft
BASIC on the TCS all the time, but boy
does Pascal look really foreign to me
nowadays ...
Puzzler: Thanks for your comments.
I finally got my BASIC program to
work the way I wanted - without
gosubs! - but with several for-next
statements. The program calculates
Washington Apple Pi Journal 55
I
the frame in a second video corresponding to one in a first video. A pair
of frames in the first video (live action) is known to match a pair in the
second (my animation). I pick an intermediate frame in the first; the program
calculates the corresponding frame in
the second. The frame times have to be
converted from seconds:frame to
integer+decimal seconds for the interpolation and back again.
But, as someone on the TCS commented in a similar situation, I could
have calculated all the intermediate
frames I needed faster with a hand
calculator than the time it took me to
get the BASIC program working! But,
that's not the point!
More than you wanted to know!
Wiz 2: You may have missed Wiz l's
point about the "END" line at the end
of the main program. Put your subroutines after the END. At the end of
each subroutine, put a RETURN.
As your program encounters a
"GOSUB nnn" (presumably nnn will
be after the END) it will transfer control to line nnn (keeping a copy of the
line number with GOSUB). When a
RETURN is encountered, it goes back
to the line after the GOSUB. Your subroutines may call other subroutines.
Wiz 1: >More than you wanted to
know!
No, it sure wasn't- I've been eager
to hear where you were going with
this! And as I've come to expect, I
wasn't disappointed ...
Greybeard: >But, that's not the point!
Absolutely!
True story: the guy who developed
dBASE (the first true programmable
mass-market relational database, back
in the late 1970s) ran_one_ad in Byte
56 Washington Apple Pi Journal
magazine, describing the program.
But he was so intent on writing, and
finishing, a program to automate
keeping track of scores in his bowling league that he let a half million
dollars in sales accumulate in mail
bags in a spare bedroom. Learning
how to solve some problems in his
bowling program was -why wasn't
this clear to EVERYONE!?! -way, way
more important than cashing those
checks and making money.
Online? Maybe!
(DSLs & Hackers... )
fast, Fast, Faster, FASTER ! ! Once modems ran at 1200 baud (an arcane term
nobody could define), then 2400, then
9600, 14,400, 28,000, ... 56,000 (sorta).
Then things got out of hand: people discovered digital subscriber lines (DSL), the
proper use of cable TV's coaxial cables,
and lusted after optical fibers with
throughput measured in Mega ... no,
Giga ... no, Tera bytes per second! Herewith some first person accounts from the
front lines of the information superhighway.
Enthusius: I want to have it all: an
iBook, an AirPort, a DSL modem, and
an ethernet network to which my
Quadra 800 connects. Is this feasible?
All the literature that I've read on
AirPort and iBook and DSL talks
about connecting the DSL modem to
the ethemet port on AirPort and plugging the phone line into the other port
on the DSL modem. This appears to
leave no way to connect my Quadra
800. I'd like to have both a wireless
connection between the iBook and the
DSL ISP and access to the files on the
Q800 for the iBook. I doubt that anyone is making wireless cards or antennas for Q800. If I connect the
AirPort ethernet port, the DSL modem, and the ethernet port on my
Q800 to an ethernet hub, will it work?
I.e. can the iBook connect to the
Internet via the DSL modem and can
the iBook share files with the Q800?
Wizzer: >can the iBook connect to the
Internet via the DSL modem ....
These two angles are explicitly covered in Apple's literature - yes you
can do it. (There was some concern
early on that AppleTalk support
wouldn't make it into final release,
but apparently that's been resolved.)
Your iBook is a full peer of your home
LAN, whether or not your LAN happens to contain a DSL bridge or router. .
The part that I've been most interested
in is whether this arrangement would
allow the Hardware Access Point
("Base Station") to provide shared
Internet access to the Quadra on
ethernet. This one hasn't been explicitly covered in any documentation
I've seen online, and it might have to
be answered in two parts: 1) when
using the built-in modem for dial-up
Internet, and 2) when using the builtin ethernet for DSL or cable routing.
There's a success story for the first of
these on MaclnTouch, and the second
may vary from service to service (because both internal and external traffic are using the same wire, and some
cable and DSL hookups are less than
gracious in this setup).
If you don't care about Internet access
for the Quadra, you're golden - this
will work splendidly. If you do, and
you have the means, I'd recommend
using a different means of sharing the
connection. Specifically, plug the DSL
bridge into a firewall or NAT router
(I recommend the SonicWall/10 as
reviewed in the Pi Journal a couple
months ago}, plug your hub into the
private side of the firewall, and plug
the Quadra and the Base Station into
the hub. That way both your wireless
and terrestrial traffic are protected
from the raw DSL hookup. (He says,
looking at his own home firewall and
seeing that some cornball keeps trying to contact his machines with
BackOrifice and PC Anywhere ...)
March I April 2000
I
And yes, I do realize I'm speaking gibberish.:}
Enthusius: Many, many thanks. I'll
look into the solution you propose.
Sounds like this might give me some
experience in Internet security that
will be useful.
Webster: Haven't done too much research on this . . . but I think if the
DSL modem is also doing the routing
of packets for you then you can use
the Airport only for wireless stuff and
not for the other features. The other
CPUs can be hooked up to the
ethemet hub and (assuming File Sharing is properly enabled on the 8600)
the iBook can log on to it.
Wizzer: >I think if the DSL modem is
also doing the routing of packets for
you then you can use the Airport only
for wireless stuff and not for the other
features.
Distinction-You can set up an address translating router on a single
segment, and you'll have packets going across your LAN using both public and private addresses. You may
have seen discussion of this in the
IPNetRouter documentation: the result
is less secure, and less efficient with
ethemet bandwidth, as each packet is
effectively repeated back onto the line
with its addresses modified.
Now, if your DSL device is in fact a
router, it'll ignore all those packets
using private addresses, and it'll direct only the public ones out the DSL.
This will be the case most often in
business lines with blocks of addresses.
If your DSL device is merely a bridge,
it'll indiscriminately shuffle traffic
forward and back - as an extension
of your home network into your ISP's.
This will be the case most often in residential lines with just one or maybe a
handful of addresses, usually dynami-
March / April 2000
" 'Encrypted' is a nice,
nebulous word. When
you use Stuffit to
compress a file, you
are encrypting it.
Unfortunately, EVERYONE ON YOUR
SUBNET has the
SAME equipment to
decrypt your packets.
So don't count on this.
For anything."
cally-assigned and often changing.
Case Study-On my home network,
as of a few days ago, I now have a DSL
bridge. Attached to that bridge I have
a SonicWall/10, which is further connected to an ethemet hub. Also on that
hub are several Macs of various vintage and a LocalTalk<-> Ethernet
bridge. That LT<->ENbridge, significantly, also serves as a MacIP gateway.
(I finally got that FastPath 5 working
correctly, and I've retired the
PowerBook that was performing this
task.) What's a MacIP gateway? Well,
for these purposes it's very similar to
an AirPort Base Station: it actually
routes packets back and forth between
ethemet and another medium, in this
case LocalTalk instead of wireless.
The key point here is that I can have
some pretty complex routing going
on, and assign addresses however I
wish across different network segments, while each bridge or router
device handles the translations from
one place to the other. Because only
packets intended for the public network are showing up on the wire between the firewall and the DSL
bridge, this doesn't cause any alarm
to me or to my ISP. (And one could
substitute in a Quadra with two
ethernet cards and LocalTalk, run
IPNetRouter and LocalTalk Bridge,
and thus serve the same core functions of the two devices I've mentioned above using one box.) Just so
long as the only traffic going across
that last wire to the DSL bridge is intended for public consumption - because it's going for a ride.
Analysis-Now, a quick glance at the
AirPort Base Station tells us that it
only has that one single ethemet port.
It can (still unconfirmed) happily perform address translation and routing
between A) ethemet, B) wireless, and
C) modem in any direction - but it
can't isolate the personal traffic using
the private addresses from the public
traffic using the public address. At
least not for any devices connected to
the same ethemet LAN. That is, the
Base Station can act like IPNetRouter
does with a single ethemet port, but
it can't act like IPNetRouter does with
multiple ethemet ports. Stands to reason, port by port.
So it's likely you -can- use the Base
Station as your NAT [network address translation] router, but if you do
you won't do so as discreetly or as
securely as you would with a split
network. You'd still want to look into
a firewall, or at least a two-port router
which is configured to only pass traffic back and forth for the one public
address that the Base Station uses to
talk to your ISP.
Extra Credit-And for today's brain
teaser, consider this: that two-port
router that you'd need for solving this
conundrum could in fact be another
AirPort Base Station! How could this
be? The answer is written between the
numerals below.
112t3 4t5a617k8s9 Otlo2 3t4h5e6
708S9LO 1v2i3a45e6t7h8e9r0nle2t
314t5 6t7a819k0sl 2t3o4 5t6h7e8
Washington Apple Pi Journal 57
I
9LOA1N2 3v4i5a6 7r8a9d0ilo
Weird, huh? Cheers!
Webster 2: I've been discussing this
with my wife. She wants a laptop next
year and to be able to surf from the
living room. I was thinking to put
AirPort cards in the G4 (to be bought)
and laptop, get the firewall unit that
the TCS uses (name slips my grasp for
the moment}, and use that to share the
one IP address I get from Bell Atlantic. The Firewall will sit between the
ADSL modem and the ethemet hub.
Another solution would be to put
routing software on the G4 (assuming that it will route between the
Ethernet network and AirPort) but
that would not provide me with the
firewall I would want if my G4 had
to be on all of the time so she could
use the laptop without going up 3
flights to tum on the G4.
Wizzer: There've been two recent issues crop up with Open Transport
2.5.2 (as it appears in Mac OS 9) and
with Open Transport 2.5.1 (as it appears in the special preinstalled version of Mac OS 8.6 on iBooks, G4' s
and such).
One, confirmed by Apple and
promptly
addressed
by
a
downloadable extension file <http:/
I asu.info.apple.com/ swupdates.nsf/
artnum/nl1559>, allows someone on
the Internet to send the affected Mac
a small packet and have the Mac automatically respond with a large
packet. What this means to you is that
someone might use your Mac as an
amplifier to flood someone else's
machine with nonsense. If your Mac
is only connected to the Internet via a
modem, then your machine won't be
of much use in such an attack unless
it's being used as one of many such
amplifiers. However, one thing that
could happen is that someone could
swamp your own outgoing modem
58 Washington Apple Pi Journal
channel with outgoing nonsense, in
which case the denial of service affects
you directly.
The other, unconfirmed but plausible,
could be used by someone to freeze up
your Mac while you're connected to the
Internet. Both will be addressed in right
and proper form with the next upcoming official update to Mac OS 9.
The reason I bring this up is to discuss the discovery of these weaknesses, as they hit the major Mac and
Internet news sites at the same time
right around New Year's Day Y2K. If
you're the network administrator for
your office, you should probably have
heard about these through CERT, or
BugTraq, or Slashdot or something as
part of your ongoing security awareness. If you're at home using a Mac
and a PPP, DSL, or cable connection
to the Internet then your situation is
probably a little different. Might your
system or network be affected? How
should you respond to this news?
Well, first of all, Apple quickly produced a fix for the first weakness, so
the appropriate thing to do is to read
the accompanying nontechnical Read
Me and install the extension on any
of your Macs that run one of the affected systems. (As a sidebar, there's
some evidence and much speculation
to suggest that this extension has a
memory-related bug that may lead to
conflicts. It was, after all, written,
tested, and released very quickly just
prior to the beginning of a
companywide holiday vacation period. But the point here is that an official patch was made available, and
officially it became prudent to install
the fix. A more permanent solution is
imminent, and should something like
this pop up again one can rightly assume they'll expend more time and
resources on testing before releasing
the fix - Y2K Eve was just a bad time
to let people fret!}
Secondly, would you have been affected? Let's look at the first one.
None of the available devices or software we've been discussing would
have blocked the amplification attack
on its own. Not the SonicWall at one
extreme, and not IPNetRouter or a
Linux-based firewall at the other extreme. The fix needs to come from the
affected systems themselves.
Let's look at the second one. Any
firewall or address-translating router
will protect you from this by default.
But direct connections via modem,
DSL, or cable modem will not. Not
until Apple releases an official fix, that
is, and I hope they take enough time
to address both issues and cause no
new ones.
Note, by the way, that if you're using
IPNetRouter or similar on an affected
system then IPNetRouter won't be able
to help you from that. It'll protect only
the private systems on the inside, but
the router system itself remains exposed to the elements. And if someone
can crash your IPNetRouter system,
then that denies service to the private
systems behind it.
Enthusius II: I am interested in getting a cable modem, once they are
available in my area. I was wondering, however, what kind of security
issues there are (if any). Would I need
to do something along the lines of establishing a firewall? And how would
I do this? I keep financial information
on my computer, and this in particular, concerns me.
Webster 3: One strategy would be to
simply ensure Guest access is disabled (which, in the MacOS, is the
default).
There are software (IPNetRouter) and
hardware (Sonic and others) firewalls.
Recent Pi Journals have had articles
on these. IPNetRouter is $90
shareware. The Sonic is about $380 to
March I April 2000
I
$400, although competitors have recently been advertised at $200 or so.
Webster 4: >I was wondering, however, what kind of security issues
there are ....
(Webster 3) mentioned the "what to
do about it" stuff, so I'll focus on the
issue itself: yes, there are security concerns. When you subscribe to DSL or
"cable modem" service, you are essentially putting your home on a
"neighborhood" network subnet. Because of the way TCP /IP addresses
are allocated, you can have no more
than 255 addresses on a subnet, and
some of those addresses are lost for
reasons I won't address. So figure an
efficient DSL or cable company will
try to cram 250 or so subscribers on a
subnet.
If you set up a network in your office,
you presumably know everyone else
on the network. They, presumably,
share the same goals you do: success
of your organization. (If they don't,
they should become _former_ coworkers.)
But you probably don't know your
DSL or cable neighbors. Not everyone
in your neighborhood will be a subscriber, and the distribution of subscribers and non-subscribers is random. So you are essentially allowing
a computer network in your home
that is shared by anyone. The cable or
DSL company presumably has security measures installed at "network
central" to protect you, in some small
measure, from the "outside." But
there really isn't any practical way to
protect you from your neighbors.
For those running Windows, this is
bad. Windows has a huge mass of security holes, and your average Windows user, or even your average Windows guru, has not a due how to plug
them. Add to this the occasional
neighborhood hacker who has in-
March I April 2000
stalled Linux, discovered it isn't' good
for anything (not much productivity
software or games) _except_ hacking,
and Pandora's box is opened.
Macintosh users running System 7.X
through Mac OS 9.X are quite secure,
provided they take reasonable precautions. First, file sharing and such
is turned off by default. Don't tum it
on without a good reason. Second,
always - always - set a non-blank
password in file sharing, even if you
never intend to share a thing. A nonblank password is orders of magnitude harder to overcome than no
password at all. Third, if you do use
file sharing, tum off Guest access.
If and when you go shopping on the
Internet, use a 128-bit version of your
browser. If and when a vendor asks
for anything you consider confidential (anything _you_ consider confidential, which may go well beyond
your VISA number to include names
of kids, siblings, birthdays - anything)
- make sure you are on a secure page.
(In Netscape, look for a dosed lock in
the bottom left comer of the page.)
Don't send confidential information
via E-mail.
This last one - confidential information via E-mail - is the one most often
violated. E-mail is too convenient to
be paranoid about it. So be creative:
if you send your Aunt Joan some
piece of information that you consider
confidential, send it in pieces. She
wants access to your Apple iDisk account? Send the name in one message,
the password in another.
Are there really hackers out there? I
get one to five attacks on my home
LAN every day, dutifully reported by
my firewall.
Webster 3: I just now remember being told the cable "modems" our cable
company sells provide encryption,
meaning everything between your
"Some versions of
Mac OS, and most
versions of Windows, can be
crashed remotely.
Just like that: I toss
you a hand grenade
through the wire,
your system catches
it and crashes, and
you' re none the
wiser."
home and their end of the network is
encrypted. That would seem to go a
long way towards stopping anyone
on your subnet from peeking at your
data as it passes back and forth.
This particular brand cable modem
also is set up to block incoming packets that weren't requested by your
machine, another step towards security.
Webster 4: "Encrypted" is a nice,
nebulous word. When you use Stuffit
to compress a file, you are encrypting
it. Unfortunately, EVERYONE ON
YOUR SUBNET has the SAME equipment to decrypt your packets. So
don't count on this. For anything.
>This particular brand cable "modem" also is set up to block incoming
packets ....
Again, this is very easy to overcome
- on the same subnet. Packet spoofing is a bit difficult on different domains, but anyone can do it on the
same subnet. The encryption and
packet filtering, however, don't address denial of service attacks at all,
which are the most frequent type of
hacker attacks.
Washington Apple Pi Journal 59
Wizzer: >There are software
(IPNetRouter) and hardware (Sonic
and others) firewalls. Recent [Pi]Journals have had articles on these.
IPNetRouter is $90 shareware.
stantly responds to those pings, preventing you from using your machine
for any other purpose. That's denial of
service: they prevent you from doing
whatever it is you want to do.
Running IPNetRouter on a Mac on an
exposed network won't make that
Mac any bit more secure than it was
without the software. So, to protect
your Mac you'll need a separate device acting as a go-between from an
exposed network to a private network. That's a firewall. And yes you
can build that device from a spare
Quadra or something running
IPNetRouter.
Wizzer: Some versions of Mac OS,
and most versions of Windows, can
be crashed remotely. Just like that: I
toss you a hand grenade through the
wire, your system catches it and
crashes, and you're none the wiser.
Simply turning off Guest access can
be pretty effective. Slightly less effective with Mac OS 9; significantly less
effective with Mac OS X; absolutely
begging for trouble with Windows.
Enthusius III: I have a cable set-up,
CTVM. It is one-way. The other way
is by phone line. My phone line is only
connected when I am doing something on the web. I guess that hackers can only send me stuff over the
cable but can't get anything back except when I am actually on with the
phone line active. Am I right about
that? If so, then I am guessing that my
door is open to hackers only a small
part of the day. Is this at least partial
security?
What is this "denial of service?"
Webster 4: >What is this "denial of
service?"
Exactly what it sounds like. You want
to watch old Superman reruns. Your
brother has the remote, and keeps flipping it to a French language special on
worms. That's denial of service.
The simplest denial of service attack:
some yahoo (in the Swiftian sense) sets
up a machine to constantly ping your
IP address. So your computer con-
60 Washington Apple Pi Journal
Some versions of Mac OS will respond to a carefully-doctored small
packet on the way in by sending an
innocuous large packet in response.
Given that your incoming pipe is usually fatter than your outgoing pipe, I
can use this behavior to not only keep
your machine occupied addressing
my whims instead of yours, but to
actually clog up your outgoing pipe
to where you can no longer use it to
request pages or do anything normal.
Worse, I can use the same behavior to
make your machine flood somebody
selse's incoming pipe which might be
smaller, like a modem. Now you're
denying someone else service.
These are examples from a broad category of hacker attacks, differentiated
from the better-known system cracker
infiltrations by giving them a collective name. Unless you want to read a
shelf full of books on exactly how
TCP /IP works at a sufficient level as
to understand and anticipate the
boundary conditions where its ambiguity can be turned against itself, suffice it to say that people are still exploring ways to misuse the system,
and you can be a victim or a pawn
without someone having to break into
your system or steal anything.
Enthusius V: Are DSL & cable equally
vulnerable? I heard that cable was
easier to penetrate. Appreciate it if
you could elaborate on firewalls, or
direct me to some info on it.
Webster 4: >Are DSL & cable equally
vulnerable?
Both are pipes. In theory, a hacker could
attack a dial-up PPP link to Explorer,
and give you grief that way. But it
doesn't give you many bonus points
in the hacker world because (a) the link
goes away when the user kills their
modem and (b) the target on the other
end can't be too important because, if
it was, it wouldn't be a PPP link.
Penetration is only an issue if you
have something you want to protect,
like medical or legal records, proprietary company information, or something that you can't do without, such
as financial records or the draft of
your Great American Novel. I don't
think cable is "easier" to penetrate;
most of the anti-cable modem crowd
is anti because they don't like cable
TV firms; next to HMOs and law
firms, they are the most despised organizations in the US.
Penetration requires *work* and work
is anti-hacker. In the" old days," hackers would devote weeks to doing silly,
trivial things that people told them
were impossible. But most of the
"hackers" today are using programs
written by others, and doing nothing
more complex than pushing a button.
These "hackers" are very good at *denying* service, or crashing machines;
they lack the skills or the work ethic
to actually break into anything.
Hacking has changed drastically since
the days when Woz spent a couple
months breaking the world record for
calculating e to the most decimal
places- on an Apple Ile. Hackers today are more like the nihilists who
toss trash out of car windows and
spray paint racist slogans on
churches.
Frustrating vandals is always a pleasure. •
March I April 2000
re
Surfer Beware Ill:
Privacy Policies without
Privacy Protection
December 1999
Electronic Privacy Information Center
www.epic.org
<http: I I www.epic.org/ reports I surfer-beware3.html>
Merry e.xmas Droppings
T
HIS PAST holiday season
was one that provided a great
growth spurt to e.commerce
and proved to be a boon to those who
availed themselves of webcommerce
services. The questions raised in this
article have to do with the electronic
droppings we left behind in our
search for the perfect gift. How well
will the online merchants we visited
protect all the things they learned
about us because we visited their
sites? And just what does that phrase,
protecting our privacy, encompass?
Try:
-fair information practices,
which are a set of principles that enable you to maintain control over personal information you left behind;
-profile-based advertising, also
known as online profiling, used to
collect information about your online
behavior, and is considered by some
a form of online surveillance; and,
-tracking your online behavior
within a single site via cookies.
At another time, it would be good
for us to become more aware of the
growing gap between the way electronic privacy is interpreted within
the European Common Market and
the United States. It is not a trival difference.
March I April 2000
About EPIC
The Surfer Beware series is produced by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC}, a public interest research center in Washington,
D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil
liberties issues and to protect privacy,
the First Amendment, and constitutional values. EPIC is a project of the
Fund for Constitutional Government.
Executive Summary
In this survey the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) reviewed the privacy practices of the
100 most popular shopping websites
on the Internet. We focused on shopping sites because many consumers
are now buying online and we
wanted to assess whether online merchants are adequately protecting consumer privacy. For all 100 sites, we
looked for compliance with "Fair Information Practices" -- a set of principles that provide basic privacy protection. We also looked at whether
commercial sites utilized profilebased advertising, and employed
cookies in their website operations.
Both of these controversial techniques
have been the subject of recent investigations. We found that 18 of the top
shopping sites did not display a privacy policy, 35 of the sites have profile-based advertisers operating on
"While it is not
surprising that all the
sites collected personally
identifiable information,
it is worth noting that
there are many popular
websites, such as
cnn.comand
washingtonpost.com,
that do not routinely
collect personally identifiable information."
their pages, and 86 of the e-commerce
operations use cookies. Not one of the
companies adequately addressed all
the elements of Fair Information Practices. We also found that the privacy
policies available at many websites
are typically confusing, incomplete,
and inconsistent. We concluded that
the current practices of the online industry provide little meaningful privacy protection for consumers.
1. Introduction
Surfer Beware III is EPIC's third
survey of online privacy protections.
In 1997, we conducted the first formal
review of web site privacy policies
and practices. "Surfer Beware: Personal Privacy and the Internet" found
that few sites had privacy policies,
though anonymity was playing an
important role in protecting online
privacy. In 1998, we conducted the
first evaluation of self-regulation to
protect online privacy. "Surfer Beware
II: Notice is Not Enough" found that
the new members of the Direct Marketing Association failed to follow the
organization's own guidelines for privacy protection. In this survey we
looked at the privacy policies and
practices of the 100 top shopping web
sites. (1)
Washington Apple Pi Journal 61
IT
Privacy remains one of the greatest concerns of online users and will
become particularly acute as many
users make their first foray into online
shopping this holiday season. (2)
While most online retailers agree that
the protection of consumer privacy is
important for the future of electronic
commerce, much debate has centered
on the appropriate approach to protecting consumer privacy online.
Businesses in the United States have
generally said that industry self-regulation, as opposed to the establishment of legal rights for consumers,
will protect online privacy. Even
though a survey conducted earlier
this year found that less than 10 percent of websites offer a baseline privacy policy, self-regulation continues
to govern privacy protection on the
web. (3)
In this survey we looked more
closely at the adequacy of privacy
practices found on the 100 most popular shopping websites as listed by
lOOhot.com, which tracks website
popularity by the number of times
homepages are viewed in a sample of
over 100,000 Internet users worldwide. While there are other Internet
rating services, we took lOOhot.com
as a reasonable benchmark (which we
also used in the original 1997 survey).
(4)
We evaluated privacy protection
with respect to the Fair Information
Practices, which are a set of principles
that enable individuals to maintain
control over personal information
held by organizations and are the basis for many privacy laws in the
United States. (5) For the purpose of
this survey, we looked at several elements of the Fair Information Practices, including the ability to find the
privacy policy of an e-commerce site,
whether personal information is collected and used with the consent of
the consumer, whether the consumer
is able to access and correct such information, whether the information is
limited to those uses for which the
62 Washington Apple Pi Journal
information was given, and whether
the purposes for which information
will be used are specified.
Profile-based advertising, also
known as online profiling, is a technique that marketers use to collect information about online behavior of
Internet users and to facilitate targeted advertising. (6) Profile-based
advertising could easily be considered a form of online surveillance.
Profile-based advertising relies on
"cookies," identifying tags that are
stored on the computer of a person
who visits a web site. These cookies
are often placed on computers without the knowledge of individuals
when banner advertisements appear.
Actually clicking on a banner advertisement is not necessary to generate
a cookie. In order to track the growth
of this advertising model, we recorded the number of sites that use
banner advertisements belonging to
known profile-based advertisers.
Along with online advertisers,
many other sites utilize cookies in the
confines of their own sites. Cookies
can be used for tracking online behavior within a single site. They are also
used for many other purposes such
as for common shopping carts that list
items to be purchased or for counting
the number of unique visitors to a site.
While we did not investigate the purpose for all cookies, we did note
which sites enable cookies.
2. Methodology and Results
To evaluate websites' privacy
standards, our survey examined 1)
whether personally identifiable information (PII) was collected; 2) whether
a privacy policy was displayed on the
website's homepage; 3) whether a privacy policy was displayed on all
pages collecting personal information; 4) whether the site was part of a
licensing group; 5) whether the site
required opt-in consent for all collection and subsequent use of personal
information; 6) whether the site allowed users access to view and cor-
rect personal information; 7) whether
the use of personal information was
limited; and 8) whether the privacy
policy specified all purposes for
which personal information would be
used. We also investigated two other
questions - whether advertising networks were presenting banner ads on
the sites' pages and whether a site
used cookies.
The complete results [questions
asked and e.commerce company answers] can be found at <http:/ I
www.epic.org I reports I surferbeware3_app.html>
We based our evaluations on the
information available to the user as
stated in the privacy policy or elsewhere on the website.
2.1 Does the site collect personally
identifiable information (Pll)?
We found that all 100 sites collected personally identifiable information such as name, mailing address, e-mail address, or telephone
number. None of the sites required
users to disclose personal information
when entering or browsing through
a site, but all collected such information for purchases or other business
transactions.
While it is not surprising that all
the sites collected personally identifiable information, it is worth noting
that there are many popular websites,
such
as
cnn.com
and
washingtonpost.com, that do not routinely collect personally identifiable
information. Websites that provide
news and information generally do
not to know who their visitors are. In
our 1997 survey we wrote, "We
thought the widespread practice of
allowing anonymous browsing, even
on the most popular web sites, was
an important indicator of how privacy
is actually protected on the Internet.
By avoiding the collection of personal
information, websites encourage users to visit sites." In.1997, we also said
that in "the physical world, we note
that very few stores require the col-
March I April 2000
lection of personal information before
allowing someone to enter." It appears
that commercial activity on the
Internet is driving the increased collection of personal data.
2.2 Does the site have a llnk to a
privacy policy on its homepage?
We noted whether a website displayed its privacy policy on its
homepage. The homepage is often the
first page a user views when entering
a website, and the privacy policy
should be easily accessible from this
location so that users will know how
their personal information will be
used before they begin shopping for
an item.
Fifty-one sites provided a link to
the privacy policy on their homepage.
Eighteen sites had no privacy policy.
We gave sites that lacked a privacy
policy a rating of "NI A" (not applicable) for the remainder of the survey
questions. We also gave "NI A" ratings to EastBay because the site was
continually busy, and when we finally
gained access to the site, the page
where transactions are completed
would not load.
2.3 Does the site have a link to a
privacy policy on all pages collecttng Pll?
We also observed whether a
website linked to its privacy policy on
all pages that collect PII. It is important for Internet users to know how
their personal information is used and
to be able to quickly find the policy
when they are asked to disclose personal information.
Thirty-five sites displayed a link
on all pages that collect personal information.
2.4 Does the site belong to a industry self-regulation program?
We noted whether sites were part
of an industry self-regulation program, such as TRUSTe or the Better
Business Bureau Online. Nineteen
sites in the survey were members of
March I April 2000
these programs. Membership in one
of these programs does not assure
privacy protection for consumers, but
it is an indication of a company's willingness to develop a privacy policy
and to learn more about privacy issues.
We plan to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs in the coming
year.
"In this survey we
looked more closely
at the adequacy of
privacy practices
found on the 100
most popular shopping websites as
listed by lOOhot.com,
which tracks website
popularity by the
number of times
homepages are
viewed in a sample of
over 100,000 Internet
users worldwide."
2.5 Does the site have an opt-in
(consent) for all collection and use
of Pll?
We also considered whether
websites offered an opt-in policy. Such
a policy would require a company to
gain consumer permission before any
collection or use of personal information. Opt-out policies, on the other
hand, allow companies to make use
of information as they wish unless a
consumer notifies the firm that they
do not want their personal information collected or used. Consumers favor opt-in policies. By way of example, CDUniverse has an opt-in
policy: "If you answered 'Yes' to the
question 'May we occasionally send
you email promotions,' we keep you
up-to-date via email." J.Crew has an
opt-out policy: "We occasionally make
our customer list available for onetime use by a few carefully screened
firms - should you prefer not to get
their mailings, please let us know."
Twenty-three sites solicited "optin" consent by consumers before a
company's subsequent collection and
use of their personal information.
2.6 Does the site allow access to
view and correct personal information?
One of the long-standing goals of
privacy protection is to ensure that
individuals are able to review the information about them that is collected
by organizations. The purpose of this
is to ensure that information is accurate and complete. It is also to allow
individuals to better assess the actual
data collection practices of the organizations that collect personal information.
In the access category, we determined whether websites allowed consumers to view and correct their personal information, including their
name, mailing address, e-mail address, or telephone number. Many
companies also collect more detailed
information, such as shopping preferences or purchase history, but do
not make this information available
to consumers. For example, eBay
states in its privacy policy: "We automatically track certain information
about you based upon your behavior
on our site. We use this information
to do internal research on our users'
demographics, interests, and behavior to better understand and serve our
users." Since many sites do not disclose whether they store information
about customer behavior, however,
we did not evaluate access with respect to such a criterion.
Thirty-two sites allowed users access to view and correct personal information, such as mailing address,
Washington Apple Pl Journal 63
rr
e-mail address, or telephone number.
2.7 Does the site limit use of the information to its original purpose?
We surveyed whether sites limited the use of the personal information to the transaction specified. This
is important because most consumers
intuitively expect that personal information will be used for a limited purpose. Companies should not use individuals' personal information for
purposes unnecessary to complete the
original transaction. While the release
of non-personal aggregate or summary information about customers
may not invade personal privacy, the
unrestricted
use
of
personall yidentifiab le information
does. We noted that the privacy policy
of eToys demonstrated a strong commitment to limiting the use of customer information: "We do not sell,
rent, or loan any identifiable information regarding our customers to
any third party. Any information
you give us is held with the utmost
care and security, and will not be
used in ways to which you have not
consented." This could be in part
because Congress enacted the
Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 and created specific
privacy obligations for companies
that routinely interact with young
people. Lands' End, however, does
not limit its use of personal information, as it states in its privacy
policy: "We do just one thing with
the information you provide that you
may not expect. If you purchase a product from us, there is a chance that we
will exchange your name with another
company whose products and services
might interest you." This policy was
similar to many others that essentially
tell customers personal information
will be widely used for whatever purpose the company wishes.
Twenty companies appeared to
limit the use of personally identifiable
information to those required for the
transaction.
64 Washington Apple Pi Journal
2.8 Does the site specify the purposes for all information collected?
We included the purpose specification category to show whether sites
inform users of every way in which
their personal information will be
used. We believe that if a company
fails to explain the reason that personal information is collected, consumers will be unable to make a
meaningful decision about whether to
provide personal information. Some
sites declare that they reveal information to third parties but are then extremely vague in their explanation of
how this information is subsequently
used. For example, Garden.com states
in its privacy policy: "Garden.com
may choose to share select information with [strategic business] partners
to enhance the customers' experience.
Customers may choose at anytime to
be removed from this list While
Garden.com only chooses reputable
strategic partners who adhere to similar policies we in no way are responsible for the actions or policies of these
partners." On the other hand,
Bluemountain.com describes exactly
what it will do with personal information: "When you send one of our
greetings, we use the information you
give us to customize the greeting with
your name and the recipient's name
and to deliver email notifications to
you and the recipient."
Fifty-eight sites specified the purposes for collection and use of personal information.
2. 9 Does the site allow profllebased advertising to operate on
their pages?
Our research also examined profile-based advertising by surfing with
a browser set to warn the user before
a cookie is sent. All cookies not coming directly from the site that was being visited, but instead from an advertiser, were noted. Since our search
did not visit all the pages within a
single site, it is possible that more
advertisers were present than were
found. We also found a wide variation in whether or not privacy policies mentioned the presence of thirdparty advertising. Some sites, such as
Ticketmaster Online, mention that
online advertisers are operating, but
mischaracterize what those advertisers do. For example, one company
that does profile individuals -Doubleclick- operates on the site, but
the Ticketmaster privacy policy states:
"Your specific user habits within our
site will not be disclosed to any third
parties."
Only
one
site,
Autobytel.com, mentions the advertiser operating on its site by name,
links to the advertiser's privacy policy,
and provides a way to opt-out of that
advertising network.
In total, 35 sites allowed advertising by advertising networks and few
mentioned that such advertising was
taking place.
2.1 o Does the site utilize cookies?
We also noted whether sites were
using cookies. Cookies can be used to
enhance online shopping by tracking
a series of purchases by one customer
during a single visit to a website.
Without cookies, it would be difficult,
but not impossible, to store several
purchases in an electronic shopping
cart and enable payment. Cookies
also provide a technique for merchants and advertises to track consumer preferences and purposes over
many visits to many different
websites. It is this second use of cookies, sometimes referred to as "tracking" or "profiling," that raises privacy
concerns.
While most privacy policies did
note the use of cookies, at least one
site that claimed not to utilize cookies was actually using them. It is possible that additional sites were using
cookies in ways not detailed in their
privacy policies. Macys.com's privacy
policy includes a mention of cookies:
"Although it is not used currently on
this website, Macys.com hopes to begin using 'cookie' technology in the
March I April 2000
IT
future." In the course of purchasing
an item, Macys.com did in fact attempt to place cookies on the browser.
Eighty-six of the sites surveyed
used cookies. Two sites -- Tower
Records and Kenneth Cole -- did not
allow users to visit their sites without
generating cookies.
2.11 Other Findings
In our survey of the top 100 ecommerce sites, we found privacy
policies that were often confusing, incomplete and inconsistent. The wide
variation of these policies might frustrate consumers who are trying to
determine which websites provide
the best privacy protection.
3. Conclusions
Taken as a whole, we found that
more sites are posting privacy policies than did when we conducted the
first formal review of website policies
in 1997. We have also seen the rise of
new associations to promote the development of privacy policies and
encourage industry awareness of privacy issues. But when we looked
closely at these policies, we found that
they typically lacked the necessary
elements of Fair Information Practices
and were unlikely to provide meaningful privacy protection for consumers. The presence of a privacy policy,
unfortunately, does not always ensure
privacy protection.
At the same time, marketers are
using new and more sophisticated
techniques to track consumers on the
Internet. Profile-based advertising
marks a sharp departure from traditional business practices which allowed companies to advertise products and services and still permit consumers to retain some privacy. In the
world of radio, television and print
advertising, for example, information
flowed freely from businesses to consumers but little personally identifiable information was ever collected.
In the online world, every consumer
inquiry about a product and every ad
March I April 2000
viewing may quickly become incorporated into a detailed profile that
will remain hidden from the consumer.
On balance, we think that consumers are more at risk today than
they were in 1997. The profiling is
more extensive and the marketing
techniques are more intrusive. Anonymity, which remains crucial to privacy on the Internet, is being
squeezed out by the rise of electronic
commerce. Industry backed self-regulation has done little to protect online
privacy. We believe that legally enforceable standards are necessary to
ensure compliance with Fair Information Practices. And new techniques
"Cookies also provide a
technique for merchants
and advertises to track
consumer preferences
and purposes over
many visits to many
different websites. It is
this second use of
cookies, sometimes
referred to as 'tracking'
or 'profiling,' that raises
privacy concerns."
for anonymity are necessary to protect online privacy. Until such steps
are taken, we have to repeat our advice for the third consecutive year -"Surfer Beware." •
Footnotes
1. "Surfer Beware: Personal Privacy
and the Internet," conducted in 1997,
looked at the 100 most popular
websites. The report is available at
http:/ /www.epic.org/reports/
surfer-beware.html. "Surfer Beware II:
Notice is Not Enough" examined the
privacy practices of the members of
the Direct Marketing Association in
June 1998. It can be found at http:/ I
www.epic.org/ reports I surferbeware2.html.
2. Forrester Research conducted a survey of 100,000 Internet users in September 1999 and found that 67 percent were very or extremely concerned about online privacy and an
additional 24 percent were somewhat
concerned.
3. A study conducted by the
Georgetown Internet Privacy Policy
Survey in January 1999 (http:/ I
www.msb.edu/ faculty I culnanm/
gippshome.html) found that less than
10 percent (32) of the 361 sites examined addressed the most basic privacy
principles.
4.
http: I I lOOhot.com/help I
methodology.html
5. The most robust and comprehensive set of Fair Information Practices
are described in the 1980 Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) Privacy Guidelines. These can be found at http:/ I
www.oecd.org/ dsti/ sti/ it/ secur I
prod/PRIV-EN.HTM
6. The National Telecommunications
and Information Administration
(NTIA) of the Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission recently held a workshop on this
topic. EPIC filed a series of comments
that are available at http:/ I
www.epic.org/privacy /internet/
Online_Profiling_Workshop.PDF and
http: I I www.epic.org/ privacy I
i
n t e r n e t I
profiling_reply_comment.PDF.
© 1999, The Electronic Privacy Information Center, 666 Pennsylvania Ave,
SE, Suite 301 Washington, D.C. 20003
<http://www.epic.org>
Washington Apple Pi Journal 65
April
Adobe
In Design
~~---'--· _AQril 2t, 2000
March
Corel
Print Office
March 25, 2000
lw
Northern Virginia Comm. College
Community & Cultural Center Aud.
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA
Getting to NoVa:
"vV~
takeExit6West
\.
~
onto VA 236
(Little River Turnpike)
f
z
For schedule changes check the TCS or the Pi's Website at http://www.wap.org/
<(
>
66 Washington Apple Pi Journa l
Marc h I April 2000
Macintosh Tutorials
General Maclnto5h Clas5es ·
Introduction to Macintosh
This class is meant not only for
the new user, but also for anyone who
wants to learn more about the basic
operation of the Macintosh. This class
is also recommended for Macintosh
owners who are new to System 8.0
and above or those who have never
really learned all the things that the
Mac OS has to offer to the computer
user. In addition to start up, sleep and
shutdown procedures, the student
will learn how a computer works and
common Macintosh terminology. The
Finder and its basic operation will be
fully covered. This discussion will
include the menu bar, Apple menu
and the Application Switcher. Students will learn how to access and use
the built-in help application on the
Macintosh. Error messages, dialog
~oxes, ~cons, folders, and view options will be discussed. You will learn
the basics of word processing and text
forma!ting. Copying, cutting, pasting,
draggmg and dropping will also be
covered. Basic system and mouse
maintenance will be included. The
fundamentals of searching for files
will also be covered. You should review the programs Macintosh Basics
and Mouse Basics prior to attending
the class.
Prerequisite: None.
Number of Sessions: Two.
Price: Standard Members: $70.00, Associate Members: $100.00, Non-Members: $100.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet and Jim Ritz
Evening Set 1
3/6/00 and 3/13/00 6 pm - 9 pm
Evening Set 2
March I April 2000
5/1/00 and 5/8/00 6 pm - 9 pm
Day Set 1
3/7/00 and 3/9/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Day Set 2
3/21/00 and 3/23/00 9:30 am -12:30 pm
DaySet3
4/3/00 and 4/5/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Day Set4
4/4/00 and 4/6/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Day Set 5
4/18/00 and 4/20/00 1 pm - 4 pm
Day Set 6
5/1/00 and 5/3/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
DaySet7
5/2/00 and 5/4/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Day Set 8
5/16/00 and 5/18/00 1 pm - 4 pm
Intermediate Macintosh
Intermediate Macintosh will follow up on the concepts taught in Introduction to Macintosh. You will
learn more advanced Macintosh skills
and terminology including contextual
menus and advanced finder options,
the custom installation of software
and updating software applications.
Students will learn about memory
error messages and how to deal with
them. Hard drive organization,
archiving and backup strategies will
be discussed. An introduction to managing system extensions and control
panels will be covered along with virus protection, system enhancements
and Macintosh "housekeeping" philosophies. Students will learn how to
use Disk First Aid, how to deal with
system crashes and what causes them.
They will also learn to use the new
Find program, Sherlock, to find files
on the computer, to find text phrases
in saved data and to find items on the
Internet. All students are encouraged
to take Introduction to the Macintosh
before attending this class.
Prerequisite: Introduction to
Macintosh
Number of Sessions: Two
Price: Standard Members: $70.00, Associate Members: $100.00, Non-Members: $100.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet and Jim Ritz
Evening Set 1
4/3/00 and 4/10/00 6 pm - 9 pm
Day Set 1
3/14/00 and 3/16/00 1 pm - 4 pm
DaySet2
4/11/00 and 4/13/00 1 pm - 4 pm
DaySet3
5/9/00 and 5/11/00 1 pm - 4 pm
DaySet4
5/22/00 and 5/24/00 9:30 am -12:30 pm
Advanced Macintosh
Advanced Macintosh will follow
up on the concepts taught in Intermediate Macintosh. In this hands-on
class students will learn how to back
up the essential data and settings files,
then how to install, update and upgrade system software. They will
learn the difference between clean
and dirty system installations and
when to use them. They will learn
how to de-install software, manage
system conflicts, and troubleshoot
crashes. Software such as Norton
Utilities, Tech Tool Pro, Conflict
Catcher, Spring Cleaning, and Disk
Warrior will be demonstrated and
used to fix computer problems. Hard
drive initialization, partitioning,
defragmentation and optimization
with be discussed and demonstrated.
Students are encouraged to bring
their CPU to use in class to actually
troubleshoot and update their own
computers. iMac owners should bring
their computer, keyboard and mouse.
All others should bring only their
CP.U and modem. If students own Zip
Dnves or Super Drives they should
also bring them to back up important
data. All students are strongly encouraged to complete both Introduction to
Macintosh and Intermediate
Macintosh prior to enrolling in this
Washington Apple Pi Journal 67
I
class.
Prerequisite: Introduction to
Macintosh and Intermediate
Macintosh
Number of Sessions: Two
Price: Standard Members: $70.00,
Associate Members: $100.00, NonMembers: $100.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet and Jim Ritz
Day Set 1
3/28/00 9:30 am - 4 pm
DaySet2
4/25/00 9:30 am - 4 pm
DaySet3
5/23/00 and 5/24/00 9:30 am -12:30 pm
iVisit iMac (with *NEW* evening
hours)
Take a working tour of the software
included on the iMac.
This two part, six hour class will
introduce the various pieces of software included with the iMac. Students will learn how use the assistants
and templates included with
Apple Works to perform tasks such as
writing a letter; making a computer
address book, flyer or certificate, and
printing an envelope. They will learn
how to send and receive a fax from
their iMac and begin using Quicken
to balance their checkbook. They will
learn how to make a favorites list in
Internet Explorer, use the address
book and send a file to someone in
Outlook Express. They will also learn
how to edit a photo with Kai's Photo
Soap, install and look up items in the
World Book Encyclopedia and use the
Williams-Sonoma cookbook. Students
will also learn how to use Adobe
PageMill 3 to make a personalized
start page on their computer. Strategies to win with Nanosaur and protect children with the EdView Internet
Safety kit will also be shown. New:
This class now includes the new Kid
Pix Deluxe, a children's graphics and
animation program.
Prerequisite: Introduction to
Macintosh
Number of Sessions: Two
Price: Standard Members: $70.00, Associate Members: $100.00, Non-Mem68 Washington Apple Pi Journal
bers: $100.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet and Jim Ritz
Evening Set 1
3/20/00 and 3/27/00 6 pm - 9 pm
Evening Set 2
5/15/00 and 5/2'2/00 6 pm - 9 pm
DaySetl
3/21/00 and 3/23/00 1 pm - 4 pm
Day Set 2
4/18/00 and 4/20/00 9:30 am -12:30 pm
Day Set3
5/16/00 and 5/18/00 9:30 am -12:30 pm
ies, and content that you would like
to include on your Homepage.
Prerequisite: Apple iTools and Introd uction to the Macintosh or a good
knowledge of the Mac OS and its interface.
Number of Sessions: One
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet, Jim Ritz
4/10/00 1 pm - 4 pm
5/17/001 pm - 4 pm
*NEW* Apple ilools
Apple Computer released a suite
of free Internet-based tools for MacOS
9 users at MacWorld San Francisco
2000. Since then, users have learned
how to access these tools even if you
are not using OS 9. Come learn to set
up and use these exciting tools to have
a virtual hard drive that is accessible
anywhere, make a home page without any additional software, share
family photos and QuickTime movies, send internet greeting cards, find
great Internet sites, and even protect
children from questionable content.
This is an introductory three hour
class.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface. Number of Sessions: One
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet, Jim Ritz
3/8/00 1 pm - 4 pm
4/3/00 1 pm - 4 pm
5/3/00 1 pm - 4 pm
Introduction to the Internet
This three hour class, intended for
users of all Internet browsers, will introduce you to the World Wide Web.
Learn what the various buttons on the
browser screen do. Learn to customize the browser window to meet your
visual needs. Learn how an Internet
address works and how to deal with
error messages that appear. You will
learn how to use Sherlock, search engines, directories and metasearch sites
to find the information you seek.
Learn how to capture pictures and
text from the internet and how it print
web pages. This class is appropriate
for all users of the Internet including
American Online customers. It is suggested that all participants enroll in
one of the e-mail courses to complete
their introduction to the Internet.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface. Number of Sessions: One
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet, Jim Ritz
3/9/00 1 pm - 4 pm
4/10/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
5/8/00 1 pm - 4 pm
*NEW* Make a HomePage with
Apple ilools
In this three hour class we will
make and view home pages using
Apple's new Homepage iTool. No
other software is needed for this
project. Please bring pictures, mov-
E-mail with Netscape Communicator
This class will deal specifically the
e-mail application with Netscape
Communicator. Students will learn
how to send, receive, reply to and forward email. They will learn how to
March I April 2000
save mail into folders, how to use and
manage the address books and how
to send mail to groups of people.
They will learn how to attach files to
e-mail messages and how to deal with
the attached files that they receive.
Students will also learn where their
email and address books are stored
and how to back them up.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface. Number of Sessions: One
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet, Jim Ritz
3/10/00 1 pm - 4 pm
4/12/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
5/10/00 1 pm - 4 pm
E-mail with Microsoft Outlook Express
This class will deal specifically the
e-mail application Microsoft Outlook
Express. Students will learn how to
send, receive, reply to and forward
email. They will learn how to save
mail into folders, how to use and
manage the address books and how
to send mail to groups of people.
They will learn how to attach files to
e-mail messages and how to deal with
the attached files that they receive.
Students will also learn where their
email and address books are stored
and how to back them up.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface. Number of Sessions: One
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet, Jim Ritz
3/29/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
4/14/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
5/10/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
E-mail with America Online
This class will deal specifically the
e-mail application with America
Online. Students will learn how to
send, receive, reply to and forward
March I April 2000
email. They will learn how to save
mail into folders, how to use and
manage the address books and how
to send mail to groups of people.
They will learn how to attach files to
e-mail messages and how to deal with
the attached files that they receive.
Students will also learn where their
email and address books are stored
and how to back them up.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface. Number of Sessions: One
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet, Jim Ritz
3/10/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
4/12/00 1 pm - 4 pm
5/12/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Downloading , Installing and Using
Files and Software From the
lntemet and from CD's.
Learn how to find files and software on the Internet. Learn how
download them, how to install and
use them. Learn about Macintosh viruses, and how to combat them. This
one Session class is intended for students who have completed Intro to
the Internet and an e-mail class and
who want to learn more about the
various software resources that are
available on the Internet. These will
include software, fonts, Sherlock and
contextual
menu
plug-ins,
Applescripts, and system resources.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface. Number of Sessions: One
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet, Jim Ritz
3/29/00 1 pm - 4 pm
4/14/00 1 pm - 4 pm
5/12/00 1 pm - 4 pm
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Microsoft Word for Office 98
This class will introduce the student to the fundamentals of the
Microsoft Word for Office 98 word
processing software package. The
course is designed for those with very
limited or no previous knowledge of
Word. Topics that will be covered include: reviewing the screen elements
of a basic new Word document (the
standard and formatting toolbars and
the menu bar); setting default options
such as spell checking and document
editing choices, default font selection
that are applied to a basic document;
creating, editing, saving and deleting
a simple Word document; using the
on line help function; simple formatting using tabs and setting margins;
creating a simple table; and reviewing pre-defined templates such as the
letter template that are included in
Word.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface.
Number of Sessions: One
Price: Standard Members: $35.00, Associate Members: $50.00, Non-Members: $50.00.
Instructor: Cordell Ratner
3/2/00 7 pm - 10 pm
4/6/00 7 pm - 10 pm
5/4/00 7 pm - 10 pm
Excel for Microsoft Office 98
This class will start by covering
opening, saving and retrieving an
Excel workbook, and then will discuss
definitions of a workbook, a
worksheet, and a cell. Next we will
review the objects on a typical
worksheet screen including those
items on the menu bar, the standard
toolbar, and the status bar. The student will then be assisted in creating
a simple Excel worksheet that will be
used to teach the concepts of entering, editing, formatting, and deleting
data (text, number, time, date, and
formula) in a cell, along with learning techniques on how to navigate
within the worksheet and between
worksheets. Other topics for which
Washington Apple Pi Journal 69
I
the student created worksheet will be
used are for: inserting and manipulating rows and columns, creating
basic formulas of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in a
worksheet using the function wizard,
adding comments to a cell, using the
fill command to enter a data series,
making the screen easier to view using splitting and column header freezing techniques, adding, deleting and
naming worksheets within a workbook, and creating headers and
footers printing of selected cells and
an entire workbook. Finally, we will
create basic charts using pie and bar
charts as examples, and will wrap up
by discussing worksheet style techniques along with reviewing the set
of workbook options in the tools
menu.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface, Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00.
Instructor: Cordell Ratner
3/16/00 7 pm - 10 pm
4/20/00 7 pm - 10 pm
5/18/00 7 pm - 10 pm
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface. Number of Sessions: One
Price: Standard Members: $35.00, Associate Members: $50.00, Non-Members: $50.00.
Instructor: Pat Fauquet and Jim Ritz
3/16/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
4/6/00 1 pm - 4 pm
5/4/00 1 pm - 4 pm
AppleWorks and Newsletters
Learn how to use the newsletter
assistant in AppleWorks to easily produce newsletters for a variety of audiences. In this class participants will
produce a basic newsletter, then learn
how to use the Mac OS stationery pad
function to speed the production of
future newsletters. Basics of graphic
design, layout, typography, writing
style and suggestions for economical
reproduction will also be covered.
This class is not an introduction to
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Apple Works.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface. In addition Introduction to AppleWorks class
or a good working knowledge of another word processing application is
suggested before attending this class.
Number of Sessions: One
Price: Standard Members: $35.00, Associate Members: $50.00, Non-Members: $50.00.
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
Attendance in an Introduction to
AppleWorks class or a good working
knowledge of another word processing application is suggested before
attending this class.
4/7/001 pm-4 pm
AppleWorks (a.k.a. ClarisWorks)
Advanced
In this class we will take
AppleWorks to a new level! Learn
how to make easy outlines, lists, and
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Introduction to AppleWorks (a.k.a.
ClarlsWorks)
This class will introduce the stu-
dent to the integrated software package, Apple Works. The course will begin with an introduction to the fundamentals of the AppleWorks envirorunent: the window layout, the help
menu, and the universal commands.
Each of the six modules {Text, Draw,
Paint, Spreadsheet, Database, and
Communications) will be treated
separately but the emphasis will be
on text and draw documents. The
course will conclude with an examination of some basic integrated applications.
70 Washington Apple Pi Journal
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March I April 2000
I
check-off charts. Make great slide
shows and presentations right in
AppleWorks. Learn how to dress up
charts and graphs, how to make specialized dictionaries, and how to have
AppleWorks read to you! Learn the
secrets of stationary files, how to
make your own AppleWorks libraries store not only pictures, but also
frequently used text strings. Learn
how to write personalized form letters and how to do special layouts for
newsletters. Many of the projects included will be using the capabilities
of ClarisWorks 4.0 and AppleWorks
5.0 Students will receive templates,
stationary files and handouts to take
home. If you have any feature of the
program that you would like covered
in particular, please mention it when
you sign up.
Prerequisite: Introduction to
AppleWorks or a good knowledge of
the basics of AppleWorks and its interface.
Number of Sessions: One
Price: Standard Members: $35.00, Associate Members: $50.00, Non-Members: $50.00.
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
417/00 9:30 am -12:30 pm
5/5/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
AppleWorks (a.k.a. ClarlsWorks)
for the Experienced User Workshop
This class is for those who have
some experience with AppleWorks
and are interested in asking questions
and having specific problems discussed. The class will be a questions
and answer format. You should bring
along on floppy a sample of things
with which you need help. The idea
being that you can work on a project
while the instructor is helping another
with one that does not interest you.
Prerequisite: Introduction to
AppleWorks or a good knowledge of
the basics of AppleWorks and its interface.
Number of Sessions: One
Price: Standard Members: $35.00, Associate Members: $50.00, Non-Members: $50.00.
March I April 2000
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
Call office for dates
Moving up to AppleWorks 6
Come learn about the changes
and new features that are found in
AppleWorks 6. Learn how to use the
new buttons, menus and tools to produce word processed documents, databases, spreadsheets, graphics and
slideshows. Learn how to access the
templates and clip art installed with
the program and the array of additional items that will be available on
the internet. This class is intended for
those who have completed Introduction to AppleWorks or who have a
good understanding of the previous
versions.
Prerequisite: Introduction to
AppleWorks or previous experience
with AppleWorks
Number of Sessions: One
Price: Standard Members: $35.00, Associate Members: $50.00, Non-Members: $50.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
3/3/00 1 pm - 4 pm
4/5/00 1 pm - 4 pm
Networking for the Home and
Small Office
Do you have two Macintoshes
and one printer- or two printers and
one Macintosh-or maybe even
more?
Come learn the possibilities offered by the Macintosh platform to
share not only printers, but also files
and even modems. Learn about the
built in networking software in every
Macintosh and various hardware and
software options available to do even
more. This class will cover AppleTalk
and PhoneNet connectors, AB switch
boxes, serial port expanders, USB
ports and hubs, ethernet, cards, and
transceivers. Hubs, router and servers will also be discussed.
Learn how to install network ca-
bling without tearing down all the
walls and learn how to determine
what kind of cable to buy and how to
put the connectors on the cables.
In addition to talking about wires
and hardware choices we will also
discuss sharing files and applications
between two or more computers and
printers.
Prerequisite: A good working knowledge of the Mac OS and its interface.
Number of Sessions: One
Price: Standard Members: $35.00, Associate Members: $50.00, Non-Members: $50.00.
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
3/1/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
5/1/00 1 pm - 4 pm
*NEW* Adobe Golive
Learn to use Adobe GoLive to create
web pages and sites. This software
package allows pixel-level control of
graphics and ease in adding
JavaScript actions. This class is intended for those who have completed
the "Web Page Workshop" and "Preparing Graphics for the Web" or their
equivalents. It is an introductory
course and is not intended for advanced users of the program.
Prerequisite: Web Page Workshop
and Preparing Graphics for the Web
or a good knowledge of web site development
Number of Sessions: Two.
Price: Standard Members: $70.00, Associate Members: $100.00, Non-Members: $100.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
3/31/00 9:30 am - 4 pm
4/27/00 9:30 am - 4 pm
5/31/00 9:30 am - 4 pm
• NEW* Preparing Graphics for the
Web
In this all-day workshop students
will learn how to make and prepare
backgrounds, headlines, clip art, but-
Washington Apple Pi Journal 71
I
tons, rules, dividers and animations
for web pages. They will also learn
how to construct graphic sets. These
will be made using AppleWorks,
GraphicConverter and Adobe
PhotoDeluxe. Students will learn
about the GIF, JPEG and PNG formats
and when to use them. If you want to
use these projects in an actual web
page, please sign up for Web Page
Workshop in addition to this class. If
you have a external Zip drive, please
bring it to class. If you have an internal Zip drive at home, please bring
an empty Zip disk to class. This is an
all day workshop. Please bring a sack
lunch or money to order lunch in.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface.
Number of Sessions: Two.
Price: Standard Members: $70.00, Associate Members: $100.00, Non-Members: $100.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
4/28/00 9:30 am - 4 pm
Web Page Workshop
Come design a web page! In this
class students will be introduced to
HTML and how it works. They will
learn how to use Claris Home Page
or Adobe PageMill or GoLive
CyberStudio Personal Edition to
make a series of linking web pages
using pre-made backgrounds, graphics, animations and sounds. They will
learn how to plan and organize their
files for easy web page maintenance.
They will learn about the principles
of good web page design. Their pages
will be ready to upload to the web. If
you have a external Zip drive, please
bring it and an empty Zip disk to
class. If you have an internal Zip drive
at home, please bring an empty Zip
disk to class. This is an all day workshop. Please bring a sack lunch or
money to order lunch in. It is suggested that a good follow-on class
would be Graphics and Sound for My
Web Page.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
72 Washington Apple Pi Journal
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface.
Number of Sessions: Two.
Price: Standard Members: $70.00, Associate Members: $100.00, Non-Members: $100.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
3/30/00 9:30 am - 4 pm
4/24/00 9:30 am - 4 pm
5/30/00 9:30 am - 4 pm
file size so that you can send photos
via e-mail.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface, Intro to
the Internet and an E-mail class.
Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00.
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
4/19/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Introduction to Scanners
This class will cover basic scanner operation. Students will learn how
to scan photos and text. They will learn
how to adjust the scanner settings to
produce better scan and how to prepare a photo file to attach it to an e-mail
message. They will learn how to use
scanned photos in text documents and
how to scan directly into applications
such as Adobe PhotoDeluxe and Kai's
PhotoSoap. They will learn how to use
OCR software to turned scanned text
into a text file.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface, Introduction to the Internet and an E-mail
class.
Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00.
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
3/8/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
4/19/00 1 pm - 4 pm
5/17/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Introduction to Graphics
Are you confused by graphic jargon? Would you like to learn how to
choose and use a scanner? Do you
know the difference between draw
and paint programs? Are you wondering about digital cameras? Are you
baffled by PICT, GIF, TIFF BMP, JPEG,
and all those other graphic formats?
Would you like to learn how to send
a picture by e-mail? Do you know
what to do with pictures people send
to you? Would you like to learn how
to make your own Finder backgrounds and icons? This is the class
for you! We will explore all these topics in non-technical language and
show you how make graphics work
for you!
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface, Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00.
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
3/6/00 1 pm - 4 pm
4/17/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
5/15/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Introduction to Digital Cameras
Learn how to use your digital
camera to its best advantage. Learn
how to download photos you've
taken and how to bring them directly
into applications like Adobe
PhotoDeluxe and Kai's PhotoSoap.
Learn about cropping and improving
image quality. Learn how to decrease
Working with Quicklime Pro
Have you ever wished you could
make a video from your computer
instead of writing a report? Have you
ever wanted to add titles, credits and/
or a new sound track to your home
videos? Have you ever wanted to cut
or mix your own audio tapes? Have
you wanted to make your own
March I April 2000
QuickTime movie, a QuickTime panorama or make QuickTrme VR object?
Do you know what equipment you
need and how to hook it up to your
Mac to make all those things happen?
All these projects can be done with
QuickTime 3 Pro which is included in
Macintosh OS 8.5 In this class we will
explore these projects, discuss what
you need to do them, and show you
where to buy the missing parts without spending a fortune. If you have a
external Zip drive, please bring it and
an empty Zip disk to class. If you have
an internal Zip drive at home, please
bring an empty Zip disk to class. This
is an all day workshop. Please bring a
sack lunch or money to order lunch in.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface, Intro to
the Internet and an E-mail class.
Number of Sessions: Two
Price: Standard Members: $70.00,Associate Members: $100.00, Non-Members: $100.00
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
3/2/00 9:30 am - 4 pm
5/19/00 9:30 am - 4 pm
Introduction to Adobe PhotoDeluxe
This inexpensive program is fun
and easy to learn. It can be used to
edit images for the web. It also can be
used to enhance digital photographs
or scanned images, make calendars,
posters, and cards. The only major
drawback to the program is its poorly
written manual with lots of neat examples but few detailed instructions.
In this class students will learn how
to use this program to accomplish
many tasks that normally require
Adobe PhotoShop.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good know ledge of
the Mac OS and its interface.
Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00, Associate Members: $50.00, Non-Members: $50.00.
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
3/6/00 1 pm - 4 pm
March I April 2000
4/17/001 pm -4 pm
5/15/00 1 pm - 4 pm
Qth~r:Educational:·
.Opportunities·
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Introduction to MovieWorks
Many Washington Apple Pi
members purchased MovieWorks at
the November General Meeting.
Come learn how this software works
in a hands-on Sessions. We will make
a "movie" that brings in several pictures, adds titles, has narration and an
animation and transitions between
pictures. We will then make
QuickTrme movies that can be played
on a computer and over the Internet.
The instructor will demonstrate how
to digitize a movie on a computer
with a video capture card and how to
record from the computer to a VCR.
We will discuss how to add video capture and video out capabilities to your
computer. We will also discuss how
to optimize your system to make the
best possible movies with
MovieWorks. Students are invited to
bring their own pictures to be put into
their MovieWorks projects. If you
own a Zip drive or other large capacity storage device you may want to
bring it to take your project home. If
you do not own MovieWorks, information will be provided on where to
obtain the software.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface.
Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00.
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
5/22/00 1 pm - 4 pm
Computer Crafting Class
An informal class in a flexible for-
mat to help students combine regular art and craft skills with their computer. This combination will open
many new doors for some, and make
life easier for others. This will not be
a class to teach a specific skill, rather
it will teach how to open your creative
spirit. Students are invited to bring
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clip art, graphic applications and
projects to class. Instead of showing
you new software you have to buy,
this class is structured to help you get
the best use out of software you own.
Learn how to create stencils, templates, silk screens, sponge patterns,
etc. Using new ink jet media you can
make elegant faux stained glass, personalized gifts, animated greeting
cards, elegant wall hangings, memory
books and quilts, jewelry, games, etc.
Requirement for attendance:
imagination or a desire to imagine.
New crafters may attend to learn new
computer tricks and experienced
crafters may attend to learn computer
tricks. None of the classes require previous experience.
Creativity grows in a creative environment. Come play with us. Each
class will be different based on the
needs and skills of the students .. Requests for specific content are invited.
When you register, tell us what you
want to learn, what software you want
to use and anything else you want to
share.
Washington Apple Pi Journal 73
I
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of the
Mac OS and its interface, Number of
Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00, Associate Members: $50.00, Non-Members: $50.00.
Instructor: Mary Keene
Call Office for Dates
Home and Small Business
Fl nanclal Management
Introduction to Quicken
This course will be an introduction to the personal use of Quicken 7
or 98, and will cover the following: Entering Accounts, Use of QuickFill, Split
Transactions, Categories, Writing
Checks, Preferences, Passwords, Help,
Reconciling Accounts, Reconciliation
Report, Credit Card Accounts, Transferring Money.
Students should have some familiarity with the program and made an
attempt to use it before class. The class
will be taught using Quicken 7 (not the
deluxe version). The instructor will try
to answer all questions as long as they
are within the curriculum outlined
above. Bring your written questions.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface, Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00.
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
3/1/00 1 pm - 4 pm
5/5/00 1 pm - 4 pm
FileMaker Pro.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface, Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00.
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
3/3/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
5/26/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
FileMaker Pro Clinic
This class is for those who have
some experience with FileMaker Pro
and are interested in asking questions
and having specific problems discussed. The class will be a questions
and answer format. You should bring
along on floppy a sample of things
you would like help.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface. Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00.
Instructor: Pat Fauquet
5/26/00 1 pm - 4 pm
Databases and Spreadsheet
Programs
Introduction to FileMaker Pro and/
or the AppleWorks (a.k.a.
ClarisWorks) Database Module
This course covers what a database is, database terms, how to plan a
database, and create database fields
and layouts. Searching, sorting, printing and editing information in a database will also be covered. The differences between the AppleWorks
module and FileMaker Pro will be
discussed as well as when and how
to migrate an existing database into
Washington Apple Pi
12022 Parklawn Drive
Rockville,110 20852
301-984-0300
Washington Apple Pl
Tutorial Registration Form
Address _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __
City /State/Zip _ _ _ __ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _
Phone (day) _ _ __ _ _ _ (evening)-- - - - - - - - Member Number
Non-member _ _ _ __ _
Please fill in the name(s) and date(s)
of the class(es) that you wish to
attend.
Class #1 - - -- - -- Class #2 - - - - - - - Class #3 - - - - - - - -
Number of Classes_ x Class Fee$ ___ =Total Fee$ _ _ __
Class #4 - - - - - -- -
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0 Visa/MasterCard
Card Number
Card Expiration
Class #6 - - - - - - - Signature _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
Mail registration and payment to the above address.
74 Washington Apple Pi Journal
March I April 2000
I
Introduction to Spreadsheets
This class will introduce basic
spreadsheet concepts. Students will
learn how to set up a spreadsheet, how
to enter and edit numbers and words,
how to enter basic formulas and make
basic charts and graphs. They will learn
how to sort data and how to print the
whole spread sheet or only a portion
of it. Students will use either the
spreadsheet module of AppleWorks
(ClarisWorks) or Excel. This class is not
meant for persons who are intermediate or advanced users.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface.
Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00.
Instructor: Pat Fauquet or Jim Ritz
4/13/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
5/11/00 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Professional Graphics and.
Desktop· Publishing
Adobe Photoshop Part 1
Learn the basic fundamentals of
Adobe Photoshop, the most widely
used graphics program. Learn the
proper way to configure the
Photoshop preferences and how to
use the tool, info, channel and color
palettes. Also learn how to use each
of Photoshop's tools, create new
documents, define colors and manipulate text and images. Also covered will be the proper format to save
your image in, and what compression
will or won't do to your image. Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface. Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00.
Instructor: Paul Schlosser
3/1/00 6 pm - 9 pm
4/5/00 6 pm - 9 pm
5/3/00 6 pm - 9 pm
March I April 2000
Adobe PhotoShop Part 2
Adobe Photoshop lets you isolate
different parts of an image on layers.
Each layer can then be edited as discrete artwork, allowing unlimited
flexibility in composing and revising
an image. This lesson introduces creating an image with layers, and covers the basics of the Layers palette and
how to select, view, and reorder layers. The concepts are fundamental for
the use of Photoshop. In this lesson,
you'll learn how to do the following:
Organize your artwork on layers. Create a new layer. View and hide layers. Select layers. Remove artwork on
layers. Reorder layers to· change the
placement of artwork in the image.
Apply modes to layers to vary the effect of artwork on the layer. Link layers to affect them simultaneously. Apply a gradient to a layer. Add text and
layer effects to a layer. Save a copy of
the file with the layers flattened.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of the
Mac OS and its interface, and Adobe
PhotoShop Part 1 or a knowledge of the
topics covered in that class.
Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00.
Instructor: Blake Lange
3/7/00 7 pm - 10 pm
4/11/00 7 pm - 10 pm
5/9/00 7 pm - 10 pm
Adobe Illustrator: Mastering the
Bezier Curve
Illustrator has become so feature
laden that current tutorials are just
overviews of the product; they do not
present the fundamental workings of
the program in depth. The Bezier
curve, otherwise known as a vector
graphic, is the primary building block
of Illustrator (and many other drawing programs). Mastering its use will
fundamentally change your view of
the power of the program. The way
the Bezier curve works, however, may
seem alien at first with its points and
vectors, an approach to illustrating
many find counter-intuitive. This
class will start with creating andediting the simplest lines and curves and
build up to the creation of complex
illustrations. By the end of the class
you should feel comfortable editing
any illustration based on the Bezier
curve, for example, all clip art that has
the eps extension in its file name. This
class serves as both a good introduction to the program and as a help for
the more advanced user to become
adept in its use.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface. Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00.
Instructor: Blake Lange
4/25/00 7 pm - 10 pm
Introduction to Quark XPress
Learn the basic fundamentals of
Quark Xpress, the most widely used
page layout program. Learn the
proper way to configure the Xpress
preferences and how to use the tool,
measurement, color and documents
palettes. You'll learn how to properly
create new documents, define fourcolor process and spot colors, create
master pages and manipulate text and
graphic objects. Learn how to correctly use Xpress font and picture usage windows and how to configure
the document for the laser printer or
high-resolution imagesetter.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface. Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00.
Instructor: Paul Schlosser
3/22/00 6 pm - 9 pm
5/24/00 6 pm - 9 pm
Quark Xpress Clinic
This class is for those who have
Washington Apple Pi Journal 75
some experience with Quark Xpress
and are interested in asking questions
and having specific problems discussed. The class will be a question and
answer format and you should bring
along on floppy a sample of things for
which you would like help. Prerequisite: Introduction to Quark Xpress or a
good knowledge of the basics of Quark
Xpress and its interface. The price is $35
($50 for non members).
Prerequisite: Introdu ction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of the
Mac OS and its interface, and a good
working knowledge of Quark Xpress
Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00, .Instructor: Paul
Schlosser, Call office for dates
Introduction to PageMaker
Using the basic commands, tolls,
and palettes, you will import, format,
and position text and graphic elements needed to assemble a single-
p age, black and white flyer. This
project will cover the follow ing topics: Restoring default PageMaker settings. Changing the view of a publication. Creating a new publication.
Opening an existing publication. Setting up the horizontal and vertical
rulers. Displaying and hiding guides.
Positioning the zero point. Using the
pointer tool, the text tool, and the
zoom tool. Specifying multiple columns. Locking the guides. Creating,
placing formatting, and positioning
text and graphic elements. Creating a
drop cap. Applying a tint to text.
Specifying a hanging indent. Creating
ruler guides. Drawing circles, rectangles, and lines. Adjusting the stacking order of elements on the page.
Range kerning text. Using the Snap
to Guides option.
Prerequisite: Introduction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface. Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00.
Instructor: Blake Lange
3/21100 7 pm - 10 pm
5/23/00 7 pm - 10 pm
PageMaker Clinic
This class is for those who have
some experience with PageMaker and
are interested in asking questions and
having specific problems discussed.
The class will be a questions and answer format and you should bring
along on floppy a sample of things for
which you would like help.
Prerequisite: Introdu ction to the
Macintosh or a good knowledge of
the Mac OS and its interface and Introduction to PageMaker or a good
knowledge of the basics of
PageMaker and its interface. Number of Sessions: One.
Price: Standard Members: $35.00,
Associate Members: $50.00, NonMembers: $50.00. Instructor: Blake
Lange, Call office for dates
Compu~
A unique approach to distance learning.
These 14-lesson courses feature up-to-the-minute techniques in th~ latest so~re.
These lessons are HTML-based, which ~ns that all you need to view them is the
CD-ROM and a Web browser1 such as Netscape, Internet Explorer or America Online.
(Even view the lessons in an HTML-editor, like PageMill, GoLive, Front Page and others!)
$29.95
course
per
Compete Curriculum
$99.95
Introduction to Computer Art
Essential Adobe Photoshop
3D Design & Animation featuring Bryce
Web Design featuring Adobe PageMill
For complete details and order form visit:
Send orders to
The Living Textbook
P.O. Box 1240
Germantown MD 20875
Add $4.50 s&h per order For inquiries, email [email protected]
~b~k._c~m
76 Washington Apple Pi Jo urnal
•
March I April 2000
Second Annual Washington Apple Pi MacWorld Bus Trip
Thursday July 20, 2000
Bus Departs: 5:00 am
Bus Returns: 12:00 to 12:30 am, Friday July 21 Meet at commuter lot at the corner of Rockville Pike
and Montrose Road
Cost: $60.00 cash or check, $62.00 Visa or MasterCard. Send the slip below with your check to:
WAP MacWorld Trip
12022 Parklawn Drive
Rockville MD 20852
Included: Bus fare, MacWorld Expo Ticket to the Exhibit Floor only (does not include workshop
sessions), and Continental Breakfast on the bus.
Reservation Deadline: June 1, 2000. Space is limited so reserve you seat NOW
Additional Information: Pat Fauquet ([email protected]) or Mary Keene
([email protected]).
The Washington Apple Pi bus trip to MacWorld New York will take place on Thursday, July 20. The
bus will depart from the commuter lot at the corner of Rockville Pike and Montrose Road in Rockville
at 5:00 am. It will arrive at the Javits Center at approximately 10:00 am. The bus will depart Javits
Center at 6:30 p.m. An in-route stop for dinner will be made about 1-1/2 hours later. The bus should
return to Rockville between 12:00 and 12:30 a.m. on Friday, July 21.
Travel will be in an air-conditioned bus with on-board restroom, VCR, and reclining seats. If
accommodations for disabilities are needed, please call Pat Fauquet at 703 550 7423 as soon as possible.
The price will be $60.00, including your admission to the MacWorld. A continental breakfast including
juice will be served on the bus. No coffee will be available. A stop for dinner will be made at about 8:00
p.m. The cost of dinner meal is not included in your ticket.
Name_ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __
Address
-------------~
City, State, ZIP_ __ __ _ _ __ __
Work Phone
Email_ _ _ __ __
Home Phone
Washington Apple Pi member? Yes _ _No_ _
_ _ Here is my check. Please reserve
seats on the bus for me at $60.00 each.
_ _ Here is my credit card information. Please reserve
seats on the bus for me at $62.00
each. Name as it appears on card._ _ _ __ __ _ __ _ _ __ __ __
_ _ MasterCard _Visa Card
Card number
Expires_ _ _ __
Marc h I April 2000
Washington Apple Pi Journal 77
DoubleClick
Dave and Derek:
M
y
HP6460 computer
ame with preinstaUed MS
Windows 98 and many
other programs. It has a Floppy drive,
CD-ROM drive and a CD-Rewriteable
drive. I' m having trouble with the
backup. It will back up to the floppy
drive but it takes many floppies. Is
there a way to back up to one of the
CD drives? If so, how do I do it? If
not, is there a better way? Thanks,
Lloyd
DAVE:
Happy New Year, Lloyd! Your
backup solution is already instaUed in
your computer. It's that CD
Rewritable drive. Derek talked about
them extensively in our December
20th column but suffice it to say, that
is your best answer for backing up
your hard drive. In the good old days,
you could actually consider doing
floppy backups (I did many of them
going back as far as my Apple I I l's
hard drive). But with floppies on the
waaaay out and hard drives hitting
the gigabyte range, you need something more efficient - and something easier - to do your backups
for you.
If you didn't h ave a CD
Rewritable drive, a DAT tape drive
designed for backups would also
be a good choice, or an ORB 2+ gig
drive (for example). But your CD
RW drive is your ticke t to great
backups. All you need to do is
make sure you have the right software. You mentioned that the 6460
came with " many other programs." I suspect one of them will
allow you to make a backup of
78 Washington Apple Pi Journal
your drive onto CDs. Check for a program
by
Adaptec
(www.adaptec.com) as one possibility (the Windows version is caUed EZ
CD Creator; the Mac version is Toast
4.0). Most of these programs make it
easy too - literally just drag and drop
the files you want to backup. Each CD
holds a little more than 600 Mbs of
information, so it will still take a few
to do a complete backup if you have
a large hard drive. But the disks are
cheap, they' re available everywhere,
and they sure beat using floppies something I wouldn't even want to
think about in the 21st Century.
Of course, I heard a rumor that
Derek was still using a cassette machine from Radio Shack to do his
backups - something to wile away the
time while h e holds little baby
Samantha in the middle of the night...
DEREK:
That is no rumor. I really DO have
a cassette drive. I've owned three over
the years, one for my Sinclair ZX81
PC with it's whopping lK of RAM,
TRS-80 Model 1, and a Commodore
VIC20. My first floppy drive was definitely a memorable moment. Anyway, if you put the data tapes in the
tape player they make a wacky sound
that unfortunately DOESN'T help
little Sammie G. sleep!
I think everyone should have a
CD-R or CD-RW. They are very useful. They can transport lots of information. I've started making large
Powerpoint presentations complete
with video and sound that will easily
fit on a CD. This CD can act as a
backup if your laptop blows up. Take
them to another computer (make sure
it has the same version of Powerpoint
or include the viewer), copy the CD
to the hard drive temporarily, run the
presentation, d elete the files and be
gone.
We've also started using CDs to provide sales literature. We create a presentation in either Powerpoint or
Macromedia Flash and save it to CD.
Send it to a client and impress! Backups are great on CD. At the end of the
year we copied all of our accounting
information to CD and took it offsite
for storage. We now have a permanent record of our accounting data
that we know we will be able to read
in any computer for a few years to
come.
When it comes to backing up
your information, here are the things
to remember. One, most people don't
do it. If you perform your backups
+ presentation
slides +
. photo slides
$3 each • $2 dupes • $20 min. • 24 hours typical
- - pay upon receipt & deduct any rejects - Ellis M. Zacharias
3300 North 7th Street
Broken Arrow, OK 74012-8200
[email protected] • 918/355-3942
Marc h I April 2000
I
you are ahead of the game. Next, make sure the backup is
complete and ACTUALLY TEST IT! Actually restore a
to make sure it works. We find that many people (usually
using automated tape backup software) aren't actually backing up the data they think they are.
Tape is the best media for backing up large amounts of
data quickly, automatically, and inexpensively. CD is perfect for files that need to be moved or read on another machine. For businesses, we recommend BOTH tape and CDR or CD-RW. For home users, we recommend CD-R or CDRW. Why? We find that most home users don't use tape
drives because they turn their PCs off and don't really rotate the tapes like they should. But the CDs are easy to use
and easy to backup. Businesses benefit from having tape
because of the reduced cost per megabyte and the ability to
backup their entire systems overnight. In our office we have
a dedicated PC that performs tape backups. It has 3 tape
backup drives (two 24GB and one 8GB tape drives in it.) We
also have two CD-Rs and one CD-RW drive that we use for
lots of things.
So Lloyd, get some blank CDs and start recording!
Dennis, our reader who had an earlier CD-R question,
sent us these comments:
Wow, you guys are fast! I never expected to see my question answered in print less than a week after submitting it,
but there it was in yesterday's paper. Thanks for the quick
response and for the very comprehensive answer. I will definitely take your advice and try the Ricoh Platinum CD-Rs.
Just for info, I have mostly been using the blue Verbatims
you mentioned, and so far I haven't seen any compatibility
problems with them (although the drive that wrote them
doesn't seem to be able to copy them, but I think that's a
different problem). Sorry, I'm pretty weak on Bing Crosby
material. Those pre-1955 artists are even before my time! But
thanks again. -Dennis
(Optional, Anne:)
Dave: Yah, yah- but Cosby was around long after 1955 ...
remember that Christmas show with Sting? ml
file
DoubleClick is reprinted by pennission of the Journal Newspapers. Dave Ottalini is on the Board of Directors of Washington Apple Pi, The Apple/Mac user group based in
Rockville, MD.
Derek Rowan is president of HLP Associates Inc.
(www.hlp.net), a full-service computer network and
Internet firm serving business headquartered in Falls
Church, VA, and with offices in Washington, Baltimore and
New York City.
Dave and Derek can be reached by email at
[email protected]; by snail mail in care of The Journal,
6408 Edsall Road, Alexandria, VA 22312; or by fax at 803846-8366. While all questions and comments are welcome,
we cannot promise individual responses.
March I April 2000
The Toys of Tokyo
T:
HE APPLE product matrix lives in four boxes.
or consumers, there is the iMac and the iBook. For
the professionals, there is the G-series tower and the
forever-named PowerBook G3. New products, whether
all new or product improvements, get one of those names
with some moniker attached to the end for differentiation. For example, the PowerBook G3 has carried that
generic name through too many different iterations, or
the iMac adds a "Special Edition" etc.
The Tokyo MacWorld show was the right venue for
the unveiling of three changes to products in the matrix
and one important new offering that is getting little coverage over here. Japan has been a large and loyal market
to Apple. Apple did the right thing by using that show
for its announcements. The PowerMac G4 family saw a
return to its original speed offerings. The long-rumored
update to the PowerBook line appeared, and Apple unveiled both an update to the iBook, and a new "Special
Edition" iBook akin to the popular iMac DV "Special
Edition". The orphan, based on Western press coverage,
was an announcement that Mac OS X will include six
"highest-quality" Japanese fonts. That is no small accomplishment, and is due to some neat new methodologies
found within Mac 0 X.
"Two FireWire (IEEE 1394) ports
replace SCSI; thus the new moniker.
Gone is the ability to use a
PowerBook as an external SCSI
hard drive; instead, you can use it
with your other FireWire computer
as an external FireWire hard drive.
You can also can boot a PowerBook
from a FireWire device."
Washington Apple Pi Journal 79
PowerBook (FireWire)
The last one was called the
"Bronze Keyboard" edition; now
meet "FireWire". It feature faster
chips and FireWire ports, but no radical new case design. The G3 processor runs at 400MHz or SOOMHz. Add
lots of backside cache and a lOOMHz
system bus and the top of the line
should be 25% faster than the previous fastest PowerBook G3.
Two FireWire (IEEE 1394) ports
replace SCSI; thus the new moniker.
Gone is the ability to use a PowerBook
as an external SCSI hard drive; instead, you can use it with your other
FireWire computer as an external
FireWire hard drive. You can also can
boot a PowerBook from a FireWire
device.
PowerBook Trivia
The screen is the same 14.1-inch
display. What is new is the chip powering it-the ATI RAGE Mobility 128.
This is the latest iteration of the RAGE
Mobility chip in the iBook. It supports
two displays, and like the "Bronze"
model, "FireWire" can drive an external monitor in addition to the builtin LCD screen. You can view a 21-inch
monitor in millions of colors.
A 6X DVD-ROM drive is standard and can play DVD-ROM, DVDVideo, and DVD-RAM discs, plus
CD-ROMs at up to 24X speed. You
can watch Rear Window, but you
won't be able to make your own; neither FinalCut Pro nor iMovie is included. The other built-in are pretty
much the same. There are two Universal Serial Buses; thus, you can listen to digital audio on one, while using the other to do real work. The hotsw appab le expansion bay accepts
most PowerBook G3 "Bronze" modules. There's a slot for the AirPort
wireless networking card; antenna is
built-in.
iBook "Special Edition"
This marks the first update of the
iBook. They now come with 64MB
80 Washington Apple Pi Journal
"The Power Macintosh
G4 processor configurations return to what
Apple originally intended: 400MHz,
450MHz, and SOOMHz.
In addition, these G4s
can be started from a
FireWire drive. Other
configuration details
remain unchanged."
RAM and a 6GB hard drive. All other
internal features are the same. Externally, the new iBook "Special Edition", like the iMac with the same
name, comes in a graphite-colored
enclosure. The iBook Special Edition
features a 366MHz PowerPC G3 processor, which should make it about
20% faster than the blueberry and tangerine models. One wag we trust offered that anyone who found the
iBook just a little too slow or too casual to use in their daily lives should
flip for the iBook Special Edition.
Power Macintosh G4
The Power Macintosh G4 processor configurations return to what
Apple originally intended: 400MHz,
450MHz, and SOOMHz. In addition,
these G4s can be started from a
FireWire drive. Other configuration
details remain unchanged.
growing Japanese customer base.
Mac OS X will include six "highestquality" Japanese fonts created for it
by one of Japan's leading typography
firms.
Typography in idiographic languages is extremely difficult. Most
operating systems aren't prepared to
deal with fonts of 3MB each or larger,
and most text handling is still explicitly designed for alphabetic text with
occasional application support for
ideographic languages in limited situations. To give you a sense of scale,
each idiographic font is more than
seventy times as large as a standard
US English font. Mac OS X can takes
full advantage of the Unicode standard that allocates two bytes of storage for each "character," not the single
byte of storage used by ASCII and
most computer systems. Unicode
makes it just as easy to display ideographic text as any other kind of text,
with full feature parity in all text handling features. That opens a door for
significantly improved text in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean systems.
Now What?
Apple is known to want to release
new products or freshen its existing
line in a nine-ish month cycle. Depending on how you count, Tokyo
unveiled one new and two freshened
products. On to New York. D.C. •
We would like to thank the technical wizards at MW], The Serious Journal for
Macintosh Userstm for their assistance in
preparing this article. Sample copies of
MW/ and subscription information are
available at <www.gcsfcom>.
Japanese Typography
In an ideal venue, Apple revealed
how it intends to exploit one of Mac
OS X's advantages to the benefit of its
March I April 2000
I
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Please remember to i-Dte. Ballot will be in your next journal
Computer Camp is coming. See page 19 for particulars.
"We're going to Mac World again. Ad giving full information
is on page 77.
Pi Fillings v. 6
Bethesda Computers ..... C2
ClarisWorks UG .............. C2
list of contents & file descriptions
Living Textbook ............... 76
MacUpgrades .................. C4
Nordic Software ................. 1
TCS ..................................... 55
Pi Fillings-The CD (#6) C3
Slide presentations ........... 78
WAP Election-Please
vote ..................................... 16
WAP Computer Camp .... 19
WAP MacWorld Trip ....... 77
WAP Map to Meeting ...... 66
March I April 2000
Apple System Updates
Apple Server Updates
ATI Video Update 1.0
Disk Tools
DVDSWUpdate2.0
Final Cut Pro 1.2.1
FireWire 2.2.2
G4 ROM Update 1.8.1
Games Sprockets 1.7.3
GV 56K Updaters
iMovie 1.0.1 Updater
Indo Video 5
LocalTalk Bridge 2.1
Modem Updater 1.3.5
OS 9 Enhancements:
• Open Transport update 2.6
•OS 9 Audio Update 1.2
•OS 9/Software Update 1.1
• PB G3 Series Updates:
• Battery Reset 2.0
• PB G3 DVD-ROM Updater
• PB G3 Series Modem 1.0.2
• Runtime for Java 2.1.4
• System 7.5.3 & 7.5.5 plus
•OT 1.1.2 & OT/PPP 1.0
• Apple Display vl.7.1
• Apple Telecom for GeoPort
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
and Express Modems
• USB Updates:
• USB Card Support 1.3.5
• USB Mass Storage Support 1.3
Blue G3 Updates
• Firmware Update 1.1
• OS ROM Update 1.0
• CD Update 2.0
• Ultra2 SCSI Firmware 1.1
iMac Updates
• Firmware Update 1.2
• Update 1.1
• CD Update 2.0
• iBook Battery Reset 2.0
• DVD ROM Update 1.0
• Open Transport 2.6 (for OS
8.6)
• iMac Troubleshooting Guide
Third Party Updates
Applications
• AppleWorks 5.0.3 [convert
ClarisWorks 5.x to
AppleWorks]
•Creator 2.16
Washington Apple Pi Journal 81
I
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
DiskWarrior 1.1
FileMaker Pro 5.0v2
HD Toolkit 3.0.2
NAV 5.0.3
Norton Utilities 4.0.3 & 5.0.2
Palm Pilot 2.5 plus accessories
Quicken 98 RS & 2000 R2
SoundJam MP 1.5
Stuffit Deluxe 5.1.5
TechTools Pro 2.5.3
Drivers
Adaptors
•Griffin
• Keyspan
• OrangeMicro
Cameras
• Alaris
•Apple
• Cameraid
• iRez
•Minolta
•Nikon
•Olympus
• VideoCamWorks
•Iomega
•PACE
• SyQuest
•VST
•ORB
• Adobe Acrobat Reader &
Search4.5
• Adobe Type Mgr 4.5.2
• Apple Disk Copy Utility 6.3.3
w I AppleScripts
• Apple System Profiler 2.1.2
• BBEdit Lite 4.6
• Disinfectant 3.7.1
• WormScanner 2.3
• Agax 1.3
• MIME Decoder
• GURU2.8
• Aladdin Expander & DropStuff
5.5
• TechTool 1.1.9
• PowerMac Emergency Handbook
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Apple Memory Guide 10-99
DragThing 2.7
File Smiler 1.6.1
Greg's Browser 2.6.1
KeySwapper 1.1.1
MagicBullets 2.0.1
Network Watching Tools
• IPNet Monitor
• MacTCP Watcher 2.0
• Mac TCP Tracer
• Trawl 1.0.2
• AGNetTools
• OTTools 1.1
• Prestissimo 1.0.1
• PrintTo PDF 1.0.2
• TapGuard 1.0.1
•Alps
• Kensington
• Keyspan
• MacAlly
•Microsoft
• Wacom
• USB Overdrive
Printers
•Apple
•Epson
• Hewlett-Packard
•Lexmark
• EpsonShare Printer Sharing
82 Washington Apple Pl Journal
Apple @ The Flicks
• tank.mov
• hal04.mov
Fun Diversions
•
•
•
•
Goofy Golf Deluze
Gravite 2.0
Quarters
Nanosaur Updater 1.1.9
New Member's Sampler
Loot for Little People
• Al's Coloring Book
• Coloring Book
•Fun Stuff
• KidCalc!
• KidGrid
•Match Card
•Wack.It!
Loot for Teens
Scanners
•Imation
• AMPRadio
• iCab
• Graphic Utilities
• GIF Converter 2.4.4
• Graphic Converter 3.7.2
• JPEGView 3.3.1
• KeepMe OnLine
• MacWash 1.0 (Demo)
• Netscape History
• Net-Print 8.1
• NoCookieV2
• Sherlock Plugins & Tester
• SoundApp 2.6.1
• URL Manager Pro 2.6
• ViaHTTP 1.7.3
• Web Devil4.6.1
Essential Utilities
• Not So Essential Stuff
Storage
• Less Essential - More Optional
USB TelePort Modem 1.0.2
Input Devices
•Apple
•Epson
•Hewlett-Packard
• Microtek
•Nikon
•UMAX
• Navigator 4.0.8 PPC
• Fortify 2.2.2
• NiftyTelnet 1.1
Internet Essentials
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Anarachie Pro 3.7
Eudora Light 3.1.3
Fetch 3.Q.3
Internet Config 2.0.2
Mail Siphon 1.1
MT-NewsWatcher 3.0
NetFinder 2.0.3
Netscape
• Customize a Mac
• Gopher Golf
• MacChess
• Pando Calendar
• Short Circuit
•Snood
• Squark
•World Maps
• X-Words
March I April 2000
I
Loot for Big People
•Consult
•Copy Paste
• DayMap
•Euro to$ Converter
•Flash-It
•Heritage
•Hi's Universal Saver
• iStroke
• KeyStrokes
• MacChart
• MiniAddress
•Office Pro
•People Lister
• Simple Calendars
• Stock Trader
Apple Server Updates:
• AppleShare Client 3.8.6
• AppleShare IP 6.3
• Macintosh Manager 1.2.2
• Network Assistant 8.5 and 8.6
•Remote Access 3.0.2
• ATI Video Update 1.0: improve 2D
and 3D acceleration for machines
with the ATI Rage 128 card or onboard ATI RAGE Pro chips.
• Disk Tools 7.6 & 8.5: if you have
lost yours, here are the replacements.
7.6 contains images for 6800 series and
PPC series; 8.5 is PPC only.
• DVD SW Update 2.0: is a softwareonly DVD player. It is not compatible with the DVD hardware found in
a G3, PB G3, or PM G4 (PCI graphics)
series machine.
• Final Cut Pro 1.2.1: includes the
application update, FireWire 2.2.2,
QuickTime FireWirer DV extensions
and the latest ATI drivers. You even
get the new .pdf users manual.
• FireWire 2.2.2: replacement driver
for those with an incompatability that
prevents serial devices, like digital
cameras, from making an initial connection.
• Game Spockets 1.7.3: includes the
complete set of draw, input, net and
sound sprockets.
• GV 56K Updaters: supports the internal modem in a G3 (Desktop or
March I April 2000
Minitower, or PM 6500 series). It is
NOT for the iMac or B&W G3. Study
the ReadMe carefully.
• iMovie 1.0.1 Updater: converts
your installed iMovie 1.0 to the new
and improved 1.0.1 version.
• Indo Video 5: QuickTime 3 or 4
PowerMac users can compress and
play back Intel Indeo Video 5 in
QuickTime files.
• LocalTalk Bridge 2.1: is an unsupported tool used to share LocalTalkonly devices, such as some
LaserWriter pritners on an Ethernet
network. It is provided solely as a
convenience by Apple.
• Modem Updater 1.3.5: updates the
internal modem which came with the
Powerbook G3 Series or iMac computer.
• OpenGL 1.1.2: enables your computer to display 3D graphics using applications designed to take advantage
of OpenGL.
OS 9 Enhancements:
• Open Transport Update 2.6: Open
Transport 2.6 addresses DHCP issues
in Mac OS 9.0 and prevents Macintosh
computers from being used in certain
types of Denial of Service (DoS) issues. Check the ReadMe to see if this
update will work with your setup!
• Audio Update 1.2: improves USB
audio support for Mac OS 9.
•Software Update 1.1: will make it
faster for Apple to deliver software
updates to you via the Internet.
PB G3 Series Updates:
• Battery Reset 2.0: addresses a situation that may occur with some
PowerBook G3 Series and iBook computers in which the battery, while in
the system, doesn't show up in the
Control Strip, or a red X appears over
the battery icon in the menu bar.
• PB G3 DVD-ROM Updater: eliminates a possible interuption during
system startup of a CD/DVD disc is
not in the drive and the drive tray is
closed. For bronze keyboard models
w/DVD.
• PB G3 Series Modem 1.0.2:
squashes lots of neat little features,
you don't need.
• Runtime for Java 2.1.4: fixes two
severe bugs that affected Java applications, but not applets.
System 7.5.5:
• Mac System 7.5.3 plus updater 7.5.5.
• OT 1.1.2, the network and communications system software for a Mac,
and OT/PPP 1.0 which enables you
to connect your computer to a remote
TCP /IP network [such as the
Internet]. IF you are told you need
them, here they are.
Apple Telecom folder which includes
two versions of Apple Telecom software:
• Apple Telecom for GeoPort/Express Modems
• Apple Telecom for Serial Modems
• AppleDisplay Software vl.7.1.
USB Updates:
• USB Card Support 1.3.5: software
extensions that provide support for
USB adapters cards in PCI bus
or CardBus slots.
• USB Mass Storage Support 1.3:
supports devices that meet the USB
Mass Storage Class specification.
See the RedMe for details.
Adaptors
• Griffin
• gPort Driver 1.1
• iMate Driver 1.77
• iMate Fiddler 1.51
• Keyspan
• USB Serial Adapter 1.7.2
• USB PDA Adapter 1.7.2
• USB Twin Serial Adapter 1.2
• Orange Micro - Grappler SCSI
Updater
Cameras
• Alaris - QuickVideo weeCam &
Users Guide
• Apple
• PhotoFlash 2.0 and 2.0.1
• QuickTake 1.0
• Cameraid-vl.1.3
• iRez
• v2.5F5
• iVisit 2.2b2
• ReelEyes 1.1.0
• Minolta - QuickScan 35, v2.6E
Washington Apple Pi Journal 83
I
• Olympus-v3.0 and v3.l
• Nikon - Coolpix 950 [US and Europe]
• VideoCamWorks - vl.0
Input Devices
• Alps
• Adjustable Mouse 1.01
• GlidePoint 1.12b
• GlidePoint Desktop 1.10
• GlidePoint Keyboard 1.03
• GlidePoint Portable 1.03
• Kensington
• MouseWorks 5.30
• MouseWorks 5.3.1
• Keyspan
• Digital Media Remove 1.2
• SX Pro Serial Card 1.3
• MacAlly
• iMouse/Ball pro
• PointDevice v3.1
• Microsoft - IntelliPoint
• USB - Overdrive 1.2
• Wacom - Tablet 4.SOb1
Printers - visit each folder for a complete listing
• Apple-all
• Epson - too many
• EpsonShare Printer Sharing, vl.5
• Hewlett-Packard - all
• Lexmark - all
Scanners
• Apple - v4.3
• Epson
•Epson Scan! II, v2.61A
• Expression 636, ES-lOOOc, ES1200c, & Action Scanner II, v2.62A
• Expression 636 - Blue G3, v3.20A
• Expressio~ 836XL, vl.03E
• EPTWN310: repairs a lockup on
PPCs with the Motorola 603
CPU chip
• Hewlett-Packard
• DeskScan II, v2.4
• PaperPort Viewer
• PictureScan
• ScanJet 140 and 150
• ScanJet Sp
• Microtek - ScanWizard 3.24.3
• Nikon - Scan 2.5 EN
• UMAX
• VistaScan 2.4.3 SCSI
• VistaScan 3.5.1 SCSI
• VistaScan 3.5.1 USB
84 Washington Apple Pi Journal
• VistaScan 3.6.1
Storage
• Imation-SuperDisk 1.31
• Iomega
• 5.5.1
• IomegsWare 1.1.3
• ORB-vl.26
• PACE Anti-Piracy - USB Enabler
• SyQuest- Utilities 4.0.1
• VST - FireWire 2.0.1
USB TelePort Modem 1.0.2
• This patch does not match the titles
for the other folders; so it get its own.
Essential Utilities
• Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0.5: gives
you access to documents in their original forms, independent of computer
platform. You can view, navigate,
print any Portable Document Format
(PDF) file.
Also included is the new
Reader+Search engine.
• Adobe Type Mgr 4.5.2
• Apple Disk Copy 6.3.3: will mount
disk images on your desktop, make
exact copies of floppies from a disk
image, convert one format to another,
and create a disk image from a
mounted volume or folder.
• Apple System Profiler 2.1.2, by
Apple Computer: learn what is inside your Macintosh.
• BBEdit Lite 4.6: the popular plain
text and HTML editor. Freeware.
• MIME Decoder: contains YA-Decoder 2.4.1 and YA-Decoder 3.0.1: no
long will messages encoded in MIME
Base64 be a mystery. Drop that pesky
file on the decoder and voila.
Shareware fee $15.00.
• Stuffit Drag and Drop (5.5 Series),
by Aladin Systems: contains the two
tools you need to compress (stuff) a
file you wish to send to someone or
open (expand) a compressed file sent
to you. If you own Stufflt Deluxe,
update 5.15 is here as well. Freeware.
• TechTool 1.1.9, by Micromat: is a
handy utility which can rebuild the
desktop on your computer, zap the
paramater RAM, and test for dam-
aged system files. Freeware.
• Virus Protection: contains Disinfectant 3.7.1, by John Norstad, the
anti-virus utility for your Macintosh;
Agax 1.3; and WormScanner 2.3, a
utility which scans for and deletes
known Autostart worm files. which
will also alert you to suspicious files.
These three cover most problems a
Mac person might encounter. If you
feel you need more comprehensive
protection, look into the commercial
alternatives. Freeware.
• PowerMac Emergency Handbook,
by Apple Computer: It is in PDF format
Not So Essential Utilities
• Apple Memory Guide, (10-9) by
Apple Computer: contains memory
upgrade information for all
Macintosh
computers
and
LaserWriter printers. It is in PDF format.
• DragThing 2.7, by James Thomson:
is an application designed to tidy up
the icons littering your desktop.
Shareware fee $20.00.
• File Smiler 1.6.1: turns your files
and folders into Self-mounting Image
files using Apple's Disk Copy 6.3.
Freeware.
• Finder Pop 1.8.1: is a control panel
which extends the Mac OS 8 Finder's
contextual menus. It greatly simplifies navigating around your hard
drive. Shareware fee: $8.00.
• Greg's Browser 2.6.1: Shareware fee
$20.00.
• GURU 2.8, by Newer Technologies:
is an application which provides you
with information concerning memory
upgrades for every model of
Macintosh computer, LaserWriter
printer and many Macintosh clones.
There is a memory integrity test to
check your RAM, a comprehensive
glossary, and other neat stuff.
Freeeware.
• HandyMan 2.0.6: allows for quick
and easy access to applications, Control Panels, etc vii the Control Strip.
Sure beats navigating through a
bunch of folders. Shareware fee
March I April 2000
$15.00.
• iSearch 1.21: lets you run literal text
searches thru files, folder, disks, and
CDs. Shareware fee $10.00.
• MacArmyKnife 1.6: It is meant to
be a "catch all" for mini-utilities and
things that other apps don't do. Give
it a try; you might find something that
one of its utilities helps you.
Shareware fee $20.00.
• MagicBullets, by Bill Karsh: is an
e-mail quoting and text styling tool.
Building this CD would be a pill without it! Shareware fee is $5.00.
•Network Watching Tools: examine your connection to either an
AppleTalk or Ethernet network.
TRAWL for AppleTalk; MacTCP
Watcher;
MacTCP
Tracer;
IPNetMonitor; and Net Tools for
Ethernet networks. Shareware.
• Prestissimo 1.5: is a Control Panel
for controlling all of the Mac OS 8.5
new features such as applications palette, keyboard shortcuts, and scroll
bar appearance. Freeware.
• PrintToPDF 1.0.2: PrintToPDF is a
shareware Macintosh printer driver
that creates PDF (Adobe Acrobat™)
files from within your application
programs. You can create PDF bookmarks to your section and subsection
headings, and URLs will become hot
links. Shareware fee $20.
• TapGuard 1.0.1: trackpads are
handy, but if you tap it by accident,
the inserion point moves somewhere
else. TapGuard fixes that problem.
Shareware fee $5.00.
Internet Essentials
• Anarchie Pro 3.7: is the only
Internet engine that is truely native to
the Macintosh platform. It will give
you faster, easier and more powerful
access to web & ftp sites than your
regular web browser.
•Eudora Light 3.1.3: is a standalone
electronic mail (e-mail) program. If
you use Netscape Navigator, which
does not do e-mail, you need Eudora
Light. If you use Netscape Communicator, e-mail is built-into the pro-
March I April 2000
gram. A .pdf manual is included.
• Fetch 3.0.3: is another File Transfer Protocol (FTP) application.
• Internet Config 2.0.2: is designed
to make your life easier by reducing
the number of times which you need
to enter your Internet preferences into
the various preferences dialogs of all
your Internet applications.
• Mail Siphon 1.1: is a tool to manage your mailbox. It makes it possible
for you to junk mail you don't want
without having to download the rest
of your mail. Great way to rid of unsolicited mail. Shareware fee is a
thankyou note, money, or chocolate.
Well worth it.
• MT-NewsWatcher 3.0: is an on line
(Internet) news reader. Freeware.
• NetFinder 2.0.3
•Netscape
• Navigator 4.0.8 PPC [no built-in
e-mail program]
• Fortify 2.2.2 [adds 128-bit encryption to Netscape]
• NiftyTelnet 1.1: is a fast telnet client for the Internet. Freeware.
Less Essential - More Optional
•AMP Radio 1.5: is the most fullyfeatured and easy to use Internet Audio Receiver and MP3 player available on any computer platform existing today. That's what they asked
me to write. Shareware fee: $10.00
• Graphic Utilities
• GIF Converter 2.4.4
• Graphic Converter 3.7.2
• JPEGView 3.3.1
• iCab 1.8: is the sweatest, neatest,
little browser out there. Still in beta,
but fun to try never-the-less.
• Keep Me Online: ever experienced
the annoyance of being disconnected
from the Internet by your ISP when
you've left your computer for a moment? Not any more! Freeware.
• MacWasher™ 1.0 Demo: is a very
useful program for cleaning up the
history of your activities on your computer. MacWasher will automatically
run in the background and clean up
whatever tracks you want removed,
whenever you want; cache, cookies,
you decide. Shareware fee $30.00.
• Net-Print 8.1: allows you to print
any highlighted text; from your
screen, from the web, from any
source. You can even take multiple
chunks of text and print them on one
sheet of paper. Shareware fee: $10.00.
• Netscape History 3.0: is a utility for
Netscape (and Microsoft Internet Explorer) that lets you to browse off-line
(not connected to the Internet) the last
Web pages visited with your browser.
Images will be correctly shown, if they
were loaded when the page was read
from the net. Shareware fee $8.00.
• NoCookie V2: allows you to disand re-enable your cookie files.
Freeware.
• Sherlock Stuff
• SoundApp 2.6.1: is a PPC freeware
sound player and converter. It can
play and convert sound files from a
variety of computer platforms and in
many different formats. It can be used
with WWW browsers to play sounds.
In addition, it supports Play Lists
which are lists of sound files that can
be saved for later usage. Freeware.
• URL Manager Pro 2.6
• ViaHTTP 1.7.3: lets you start an
HTTP download, stop for some reason, and resume it at another time.
This is slick and cheap. Save time and
line charges. Shareware fee $5.00.
• Web Devil 4.6.1: Web Devil is a tool
for downloading web pages and their
associated images, textures, and links
quickly and easily. Give it a URL and
it will download all the items on the
web page. It has an easy to use interface, is scriptable and recordable, and
is fully multi-threaded so it won't hog
the CPU. Version 4.6.1 is free; the full
featured version is $35.00. •
See ad for CD on
inside back cover.
Order today!!
Washington Apple Pi Journal 85
TC
1999 Index of Journal Articles
compiled by Bonnie Ashbaugh
Great thanks go to Bonnie Ashbaugh for her patience and meticulousness in putting together this, and other journal
indices. To understand the index note that it is organized by volume, issue number and by page. The articles are then
divided into categories. These categories include: G=General interest; F=Feature; BR= Book review; SR=Software review; HR=Hardware review; CDR=CD-ROM review. Author, (with NA=no attribution) and title of article are also
included.
Vol. Issue Cat.
Title, page
21
21
21
21
21
6
6
6
6
6
21
21
21
21
21
6
G
6
6
6
6
G
G
G
G
21
6
SR
Holiday Gift Giving Opportunities, p. 14
Women's SIG September Meeting, p. 16
Old Apples for a New Generation, p. 16
Genealogy SIG September Meeting, p. 17
Graphic Arts August and September
SIG Meetings, p. 19
Adobe Acrobat Captures the Web, p. 23
21
6
BR
Spells for Wizards: A Review of Books, p. 27 Charters, Lawrence I.
21
21
6
6
SR
F
21
6
F
21
6
SR
21
6
BR
Starry Night Deluxe and Pro, p. 30
Army Adopts Macintosh for World Wide
Web, p.33
Networking Made Simple:
Ethernet Networking, p. 35
Interface Hall of Shame: Quicklime
4.0 Player, p. 37
lightly Wrapped Expertise: A Review of
Books, p. 40
Adobe Acrobat 4: Second Look at the
Electronic Publishing Future, p. 45
Gerstenbluth, Paul
21
6
G
G
G
G
G
SR
21
21
21
21
6
6
6
6
G
HR
HR
F
21
21
21
21
21
6
SR
F
6
6
6
6
F
F
SR
The Making of a Problem, p. 5
BOD August Meeting Notes, p. 7
BOD September Meeting Notes, p. 7
August General Meeting Report, p. 8
September General Meeting Report, p. 12
Subject
Author
Licensing Apple Computer, Inc.
Board of Directors WAP
Board of Directors WAP
General meetings WAP iBook
General meetings WAP
Movie creation
NA
WAP TCS Explorer Service
Cleveland, Marjorie SIGs/Slices Women's interests
Evans, Lorin Medlin, Beth
WAP
Maish, Alex
SIGs/Slices Genealogy
Evans, Lorin
NA
NA
Kiepe, Steve
Kiepe, Steve
Lange, Blake
Dimick, Dennis R.
Harris, David L.
SIGs/Slices Graphics
Desktop publishing Electronic documents
PDF (Portable Document Format)
Web page design Repairing hardware T
Troubleshooting
Astronomy Planetarium programs
Dickey, Connie E.
Security Military Global Hell
Charters, Lawrence I.
Computer usage Techniques File sharing
Hayes, Brian C.
Multimedia
Charters, Lawrence I.
Word processing Desktop publishing Web
page design
Electronic documents PDF (Portable
Document Format)
Ludwigson, John (compiler)
TCS
Best of the TCS, p. 52
iBook: Vision in Blueberry, p. 67
Washington Apple Pi Labs Laptops
iBook Benchmarks, p. 71
Washington Apple Pi Labs Laptops
Cook, Ray
Norton Utilities Norton AnbVirus Trouble
Saga of a Mac Fan, p. 72
shooting
FileMaker Pro DemystHied, p. 74
Ottalini, Dave
Database File management
Q&A PowerBooks Partitioning
DoubleClick-Sept. 20th, p. 76
Rowan, Derek Ottalini, Dave
Q&A Word97 Excel
DoubleClick-Sept. 27th, p. 77
Rowan, Derek Ottalini, Dave
Q&A
DoubleClick-Oct. 4th, p. 78
Rowan, Derek Ottalini, Dave
Protecting Your Copyrighted Graphics, p. 85 Gerstenbluth, Paul
Digimarc Watermarks
86 Washington Apple Pi Journal
March I April 2000
Vol. Issue Cat.
21
21
6
6
G
F
21
6
SR
5
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
21
21
21
21
21
21
21
5
5
5
5
5
5
21
21
21
21
21
21
21
5
5
G
F
F
F
G
SR
SR
21
5
F
21
21
5
5
G
SR
21
21
21
21
5
5
5
5
G
G
F
F
21
5
SR
21
5
CDR
21
21
21
5
5
G
G
F
21
21
21
21
21
21
21
21
21
21
21
21
21
21
21
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
SR
F
F
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
March I April 2000
Title, page
1997 Index of Journal Articles, p. 86
A Resource for AppleWorks Users, p. 91
Author
Subject
rr
Ashbaugh, Bonnie
Mason, Brian G.
WAP Journal
Apple II Word processing General-purpose
applications
Updating ProSel, "Norton Utilitiesn for the Apple II, p. 91
Mason, Brian G.
Troubleshooting
Repairing hardware
He's Not Happy...., p. 5
Evans, Lorin
Apple-related stuff
BOD June Meeting Notes, p. 7
NA
Board of Directors WAP
BOD July Meeting Notes, p. 8
NA
Board of Directors WAP
July General Meeting Report, p. 9
Kiepe, Steven
General meetings WAP
WAP's MacFun Bus Goes to MacWorld, p. 10Keene, Mary
WAP MacWorld '99 Apple Computer, Inc.
Genealogy SIG June Meeting, p. 23
Rice, Charles Jordan, Mary
SIGs/Slices Genealogy
Graphic Arts SIG June and
July Meeting, p. 25
Lange, Blake
SIGs/Slices Graphics
Guess the User Groups, p. 29
Ottalini, Dave
User groups
Surviving in a Cross Platform World, p. 30 Kiepe, Steve
Microsoft Office 97 File conversion
Maclips--1999, p. 34
Ottalini, Dave
Computer usage, Techniques, Troubleshooting
Ethernet Network for Two Macs, p. 35
Fox, Bill
iMac Networking
Error if the Month, p. 37
NA
Mac OS X Server
Poser 4-lt Has Lots of New Abilities, p. 38 Bonwit, Stuart
Animation Image creation Movie creation
When Your Zip Disk Takes Hike ...
ARGHHH, p. 41
Smith, Dale
DiskWarrior, Repairing hardware, Troubleshooting
The Need for Speed: ComCast@Home
and Cable Moderns, p. 43
Washington Apple Pi Labs Internet Comcast Cable moderns
Meeting WAP Members, p. 46
Mobley, Jan
WAP User groups
Starry Night Deluxe and the Tracking of
Spacecraft, p. 52
Harris, David
Astronomy Planetarium programs
Best of the TCS, p. 61
Ludwigson, John (compiler and editor)
TCS
Time Travel and the Macintosh, p. 65
Washington Apple Pi Labs Y2K compliance
SonicWall: Combating the Barbarians, p. 66 Washington Apple Pi Labs Internet Firewalls Security
HyperCard: What Is It? Really,
What Is It?, p. 70
Witte, Tom
Programming
Eye Candy3.0:Tempting Desserts
for Your Eyes, p. 71
Gerstenbluth, Paul
Graphics Image creation Photoshop
Mini-Review: Washington Apple
Pi "Pi Fillingsn, p. 71
Aikens, Daria
WAP Pi Fillings-The CD
HyperStudio Mangement Changed, p. 74 Mason, Brian (compiler) Apple llGS Education
Apple Computer Website Directory, p. 85
NA
Apple Computer, Inc, World Wide Web (yNIW)
Free Mac Tech Support for Everyone, p. 88 Conte, Russ
Tech Exchange Apple Computer, Inc.
Technical Information Library
Design Your Own Home, p. 89
Wilson, Dennis
3D modeling Archltectural design
InkJet Printers, p. 90
Barnsley, Godfrey
Printers
Apple II Telecommunications, p. 92
Mason, Brian
Apple II Telecommunications programs
Another Order of Steak, Please, p. 5
Evans, Lorin
User groups WAP
BOD April Meeting Notes, p. 7
NA
Board of Directors WAP
BOD May Meeting Notes, p. 7
NA
Board of Directors WAP
April General Meeting Report, p. 8
Essick, Don
General meetings WAP
May General Meeting Report, p. 1O
Essick, Don
General meetings WAP
Contents Pi Fillings-The CD (version 5), p. 11 NA
Pi Fillings CD
NMS: New Millennium Syndrome, p. 13
Charters, "Fred"
Year 2000
The 1999 Computer Camp at WAP, p. 14
NA
Computer camp
April Genealogy SIG Meeting, p. 16
Jordan, Ed
SIGs/Slices Genealogy
May Genealogy SIG Meeting, p. 17
Jordan, Ed
SIGs/Slices Genealogy
Graphic Arts SIG April &May Meettngs, p. 19 Lange, Blake
SIGs/Slices Graphics
Delmarva Slice Macintosh Users
Group Established, p. 19
Wetzel, Sally
SIGs/Slices
Washington Apple Pi Journal 87
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Vol. Issue Cat.
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21
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Title, page
Women•s SIG May Meeting, p. 21
Mac OS 8.6: Overview, p. 22
Election Results, May 1999, p. 26
Digital Edge: WWDC Wrap Up for
Non-Programmers, p. 27
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Ask the Webmaster, p. 31
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Ask the Webmaster, p. 31
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The Art of Seeing: History, Culture
and Digital Photography, p. 36
Review of Consultant: Personal
Information Manager, p. 38
SETl@home, p. 41
Acrobat 4.0: New Tricks are in
Short Supply, p. 45
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Author
NA
NA
NA
Subject
SIGs/Slices Women's interests
MacOS8.6
WAP
Sydow, Dan Parks
WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference)
Mac OS
[email protected] TCS Explorer Service World Wide
WebrNWW)
[email protected] TCS Explorer Service World Wide
WebrNWW)
Covington, George A.
Graphics Photograph manipulation
Tripp, Dick
Harris, David
PIM (Personal Information Manager)
Astronomy Science
Dimick, Dennis R.
PDF (Portable Document Format) Desktop
publishing Web page design
Configuring Date and lime Using Mac
OS 8.5, p. 52
Washington Apple Pi Labs Mac OS 8.5
Rayovac and Resource 800 to the
Rescue, p. 62
Gerstenbluth, Paul
Hardware Troubleshooting Clock battery
Some lips for Using AOL in Paris, p. 62
Rook, Lisette
America Online Online services
Review of TechTools Pro 2: The Best Cure
for Your Sick MAc, p. 63
Gerstenbluth, Paul
Troubleshooting Repairing hardware
MoniSwltch Review: Update from
the Manucfaturer, p. 64
Bott, Roderich
Monitor switching
Best of the TCS, p. 65
Ludwigson, John (compiler)
TCS
1998 Index of Journal Articles, p. 69
Ashbaugh, Bonnie (compiler)
WAP Journal
Mac OS and Windows Evolutions: Leaming the Facts
About Operating System Evolution, p. 83
Every, David K.
Mac OS
"Kindergarten Success Starter": A Review of "The
Playroom" and "James Discovers Math", p. 88 Johnson, Ron
Games Chi!dren•s
interests Education
Rights of Spring, p. 89
Gagliardi, Charles
E-mail
Highlights of Pi Fillings 5.0, p. 91
NA
Pi Fillings CD
Deja Vu All Over Again, p. 5
Evans, Lorin
FireWire, IEEE 1394,USB (Universal Serial Bus)
AHundred Apple lls, p. 7
Evans, Lorin
WAP Apple II
February General Meeting Report, p. 10
Essick, Don
General meetings WAP
Internet Service Charges: A
Misunderstanding, p. 11
Weygand, Bob
Internet, Federal Communications Commission
March General Meeting Report, p. 12
Essick, Don
General meetings WAP
BOD February Meeting Notes, p. 13
NA
Board of Directors WAP
On the Bleeding Edge, p. 19
Harris, David
Power Macintosh G3
Software Review: Font Reserve, p. 23
Chernoff, Paul J.
Font Reserve Fonts
Fonts: AQuick Overview, p. 23
Charters, Lawrence I. Fonts
Adobe Premier 5: The Trials of Being New, p. 33 Dimick, Dennis R. Adobe Premier 5.1, Quicklime , Movie creation
Poser 3, p. 37
Bonwlt, Stuart
Poser Image creation Animation
Best of the TCS, p. 40
Ludwigson, John
TCS
Grammarian, p. 53
Keene, Mary
Grammarian, Word processing, Grammar
checkers
Universal Serial Bus (USB) Revisited:
USB (Universal Serial Bus)
Evans, Lorin
Technobabble Lite, p. 59
Charters, Lawrence I. Mac OS Apple Computer, Inc.
Changing Faces: New Mac Logos, p. 66
88 Washington Apple Pi Journal
March I April 2000
Vol. Issue Cat.
21
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Title, page
Close Encounters of the
Paperwork Kind, p. 68
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CorelDraw 8, p. 71
DoubleClick, p. 73
More DoubleClick, p. 75
3 Macs and a Printer, p. 76
Professional Tax Preparation Software
for the Apple II, p. 79
DC Web Women Launched to Provide
Resources for Women Online, p. 82
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March I April 2000
AWeb Site That Could Save Your
Life: www.alldata.com, p. 82
A Leaming Curve, p. 5
WAP By-Laws, p. 7
Happy Birthday, Macintosh, p. 13
BOD December Meeting Notes, p. 14
BOD January Meeting Notes, p. 14
January General Meeting Report, p. 16
January's Main Meeting (photos), p. 18
Apple Visits Washington Apple Pi
(photos), p. 19
Graphic Arts SIG January Meeting, p. 20
StockSIG December Meeting, p. 21
Genealogy SIG December Meeting, p. 22
Genealogy SIG January Meeting, p. 23
History of a Shortcut: Why Do You Drag a
Disk Image to the Trash?, p. 25
Ray Dream Again, p. 27
Electrttier and Tribeworks Arrive;
Quicklime 4 and Final Cut Are Near, p. 29
Author
Subject
rr
Herlihy, Tom
Programming Web page design Electronic
documents
Rego, Sylvia
Art Explosion 250,000 Graphics Photograph
manipulation
Gagan, Sara
CorelDraw 8 Desktop publishing Graphics
Rowan, Derek Ottalini, Dave
Q&A
Rowan, Derek Ottalini, Dave
Q&A
Glidden, Matthew
Networking Techniques
Mason, Brian
Tax Preparer Tax preparation Apple II
NA
Internet, Women's interests, World Wide Web
ey.JWW)
Gerstenbluth, Paul
Evans, Lorin
NA
NA
NA
NA
Essick, Don
Dimick, Dennis R.
Internet, J\Litomobt1e recalls, World Wide Web rtNlW)
NA
Board of Directors WAP
WAP By-Laws WAP
Macintosh
Board of Directors WAP
Board of Directors WAP
General Meetings WAP
General Meetings WAP
Lange, Blake
Pelham, Morris
Jordan, Ed
Jordan, Ed
General Meetings, WAP, Apple Computer, Inc.
SIGs/Slices Graphics
SIGs/Slices Stock market Investments
SIGs/Slices Genealogy
SIGs/Slices Genealogy
Every, David K.
Bonwlt, Stuart
Disk images Floppy disks
Ray Dream Studio 5 Animation
Dimick, Dennis R.
Quicklime Adobe Premier 5.1; Mer Effects
4.0 Movie creation
A Not So Impartial Review of Microsoft Internet
4.5, Macintosh Edition, p. 33
Lubarsky, Al
Microsoft Internet 4.5 Web browsers
The Complete National Geographic, p. 36 Barnes, John
National Geographic CD-ROM sets
Connecting Grief and Blue Macs, p. 39
Evans, Lorin
iMac Power Macintosh G3
High Speed Internet Access: ISDN, ADSL,
or Cable?, p. 43
Essick, Don
Cable modems ISDN ADSL
Computer Camp, p. 46
NA
Computer camp WAP
MoniSwltch: When You Have More
Macs Than Sense, p. 59
Washington Apple Pi Labs MoniSwltch2 and 4 Monitor switching
iMac Benchmarks: Quick
Comparisons, p. 59
Washington Apple Pi Labs iMac Benchmarks
Leaming New Software Goes to the Movies!, p. 64
Finkler, C. Etana
MacAcademy Macromedia Director 6
MetaCreations Painter 4
Best of the TCS, p. 66
Ludwigson, John
TCS
Graphic Design 102 for Anybody: Out of Memory Messages, p. 70
Keene, Mary
Graphics
Solving the Y2K Crisis on the Cheap, p. 77 Charters, Lawrence I. Year 2000
DoubleClick, p. 80
Rowan, Derek Ottalini, Dave
Q&A iMac
More DoubleC!ick, p. 81
Rowan, Derek Ottalini, Dave
Q&A
Washington Apple Pi Journal 89
IT
Vol. Issue Cat.
Title, page
Author
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FileMaker Pro 4 Bible, p. 84
Gerstenbluth, Paul
Bundle Shareware with Every New Mac, p. 85
3D Archltectural Drawings Art~ice DesignWorks, p. 86
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Bruce Bittle on the "HAL Har, p. 87
Bargain Hunting on the Web for New
and Used Mac Stuff, p. 89
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Bittle, Bruce
Subject
FileMaker Pro 4 Bible Books Databases
Shapiro, Phil
Shareware
Wilkins, David
DesignWorks
Architectural design
Computer technology
Used computers Online shopping World
Wide Web rNWW)
3D Railroad: Concept and Design, p. 90
Coleman, W. Fred Jr. 3D Railroad Simulation Railroad scale
modeling
How to Identify Your llc's Model, p. 92
Buggie, Stephen
Apple II
Apple/// Q &A, p. 93
Glaser, Zhava Fabric, Eliott
Apple///
Letter of Appreciation, p. 1
Urban, Gina
Letter to editor WAP
BOD October 1998 Meeting Notes, p. 5
NA
Board of Directors WAP
BOD November 1998 Meeting Notes, p. 6 NA
Board of Directors WAP
October General Meeting Report, p. 7
Essick, Don
General Meetings WAP
November General Meeting Report, p. 1O Essick, Don
General Meetings WAP
Genealogy SIG October/November Meeting, p. 14 Jordan, Ed
SIGs/Slices Genealogy
Anniversary meeting photos, p. 14
NA
20th anniversary meeting
Graphic Arts SIG August-November Meetings, p. 17 Lange, Blake SIGs/Slices Graphics
An Interview with Brian Mason-WAP Member
at Large, p. 19
Seferian, Nancy
Interview WAP
Tuesday Night Technical Assistance, p. 22 Evans, Lorin
Tuesday Night Clinic Repairing hardware WM'
ACompressed Tour of Stufflt 5.0, p. 24
NA
Stufflt 5.0 Compression/decompression
Y2K: It Is Not a Bug If It Was Deliberate, p. 27Charters, Lawrence I. Year 2000
iMac Review: Ifs a Mac, p. 28
Washington Apple Pi Labs iMac
i Mac Memory Expansion: Do It Yourself?, p. 31 Washington Apple Pi Labs
iMac
Financing for the Future, p. 33
Marshall, Alice
New enterprises Seed capital Investments
WebChecker and the Herding of URLs, p. 34 Harris, David
World Wide Web rNWW) URL trackers Web
page design
Hottest Downloads: Making Quoting
Easy on theTCS , p. 37
Dunham, Lou
TCS MagicBullets
Computer Games for the Deaf, p. 38
Kent, Shirley B.
Games Assistive technology
Floppy Disks Are Obsolete, p. 39
Ludwigson, John
Floppy disks iMac
Best of the TCS, p. 44
Ludwigson, John
TCS
Aladdin Desktop Magician™, p. 59
Keene, Mary
Aladcflll Desktop Magician™ File management
iMac Benchmarks: Quick Comparisons, p. 64 Washington Apple Pi Labs iMac Benchmarks
Washington Apple Pi Mac Bench Pro:
Wall of Macs, p. 65
Washington Apple Pi Labs WAP benchmark system Benchmarks
Leaming New Software -Back to School! a
Computer courses
Continuing Saga, p. 69
Finkler, C. Etana
Digital Cameras, the Next Generation, p. 80 Cutler, Gar
Digital cameras
My ALPS Model 4000 Printer/Scanner, p. 82 Wilmoth, Mical
Printers/scanners
Design Your Own Home: But Use Your
Smith, Vernon W.
Design Your Own Home 3D Walkaround
Common Sense, p. 83
Floorplan design
lmageReady: A Review, p. 85
DiBenedetto, Thomas I. lmageReady, Image creation, Electronic
documents
The Apple II Special Report: The Computer
Evry, Ron
Apple//
That Refuses to Die, p. 87
Macintosh Disketeria, p. 90
Weikert, Dave
Disk Library Floppy disks CD-ROM sets •
90 Washington Apple Pi Journal
Marten, Bryan
March I April 2000
AppleWorks vs. AppleWorks
by Matthew Pearce, [email protected]
COMMON question is
"How can I transfer my old
AppleWorks documents to
my new Macintosh?" One of the best
methods is to use AppleWorks
Macintosh. Although there are versions of AppleWorks that run on three
(four if you want to distinguish between the Apple IIGS and the 8 bit
Apple ][s) different hardware platforms, the files are surprisingly compatible. The Macintosh used to test
these transfers is running MacOS
7.6.1, has the PC link control panel
installed and uses the Mac Link software installed by AppleWorks Mac
(5.03).
Below is a list of AppleWorks files
from the various platforms that
AppleWorks Mac can access.
AppleWorks "Classic" (ProDOS 8
based AppleWorks for the Apple][
line) Version 3.0 and earlier: These
files can be imported into
AppleWorks Mac without conversion. If you have PC link installed, you
do not need to save these files to a HFS
formatted disk. Place a write protected disk (the Macintosh saves
Finder files to the disk) into the
Macintosh disk drive. Start
AppleWorks Mac and click on Cancel. Now select Open from the File
menu and open the file you want to
transfer.
Version 4.x and later: Between version 3.0 and 4.0, Claris sold the rights
to AppleWorks to a third party. To
make things worse, the file format
changed with AppleWorks Classic v. 4.
You will need to save the files as text
and insert them into AppleWorks Mac.
To save a word processor document, use Apple-p to print, then se-
March I April 2000
lect the option to print to an ASCII
(text) file. Select the option "returns
at the end of paragraphs." Finally,
provide a name for the file.
To save a database document, use
Apple-p to print, then select" create a
new tables format." Press return. Select "from the current layout." Press
return. Give the new format a name
(the name doesn't matter as you will
probably use it once). Press Apple-p
"The transfer works
both ways. Save an
AppleWorks Mac file to
a PC disk (don't forget
the .cwk suffix). Insert
the disk into the PC.
Double click on My
Computer... "
again. Select print to an ASCII (text)
file on disk. Select tabs between categories and returns between records
(almost any database program will
recognize this format).
The database file can be saved as
a DIF file or a text file. Neither format has an advantage for transferring to
AppleWorks Mac. Side note: by default, AppleWorks Mac will open a
text file as a word processing document and a DIF file as a spreadsheet
document.
Reconstructing the database in
AppleWorks Mac is a bit more difficult. Start by creating a new database
file. (Click on the database icon in the
tool menu bar.) Create the fields that
will accept the database information.
When finished, select Insert from the
File menu. Insert the text file you just
created. AppleWorks Mac will display
two boxes at the top of the screen. The
left box displays the raw data in the
text file and the right box displays
what fields the data is mapped into.
If the mapping is wrong, you can exit,
adjust your database accordingly and
import again. Be sure to use the scan
buttons to scan through the data and
confirm the data is mapping correctly.
To save a spreadsheet, hold down the
Apple key and press p. Select all and
press return. Save to a DIF file. When
prompted for a DIF order, select columns (rows will save your spreadsheet
"sideways") and press return. Type in
a filename and press return.
To open the spreadsheet, start
AppleWorks Mac. Click on Cancel. Pull
down the File menu and select Open.
Double click on the file to open it.
AppleWorks GS: Word processor
documents will transfer without any
conversion. Insert the disk, start
AppleWorks Macintosh, click on Cancel (you don't want to create a new
document), select Open from the File
menu and open the file.
Spreadsheet and database: Pull
down the File menu and select Save
As. When the file dialog box opens,
click on the button marked" ASCII."
Select the location to save and provide
a file name. Apple Works GS will save
the database with tabs between fields
and returns between records. Recover
the database using the instructions for
AppleWorks Classic 4 and later.
To recover a spreadsheet saved as
a text/ ASCII file, start AppleWorks
Mac. Open a new spreadsheet file.
Select Insert from the File menu, then
open the text file.
Other AppleWorks GS formats: I
haven't been able to convert these yet.
AppleWorks for Windows: Word pro-
Washington Apple Pi Journal 91
"AppleWorks GS: Word
processor documents
will transfer without any
conversion. Insert the
disk, start AppleWorks
Macintosh... "
cessing, spreadsheet, database and
paint files transfer without having to
do any conversions. Save the file with
a .cwk suffix (this is the default suffix
for Claris Works). Insert the disk (PC
link will allow your Macintosh to
read/write PC disks) and double click
on the file icon. The first time you do
this, a list of applications will appear.
Choose AppleWorks (it might be
called Claris Works) from the list.
The transfer works both ways.
Save an AppleWorks Mac file to a PC
disk (don't forget the .cwk suffix). Insert the d isk into the PC. Double click
on My Computer, double click on the
A: drive, double click on the file icon.
Ok, so what about transferring files
from
AppleWorks
Mac
to
AppleWorks Classic? This can be
done in a limited fashion. Unfortunately, the Macintosh saves text files
as forked files (forked files have two
p ieces, a data fork and a resource
fork). One method of creating a "standard" text (ProDOS cannot handle
forked files) file is to open the forked
file using ShadowWrite or Hermes.
You can then save the file as text.
There are 8 bit programs out there that
can strip the d a ta fork out of a
Macintosh file. These options will be
covered in next month's article.
The AppleWorks "family" of
products are highly compatible with
each other. With little effort, you can
s hare fil es be tween an Apple ][,
Macintosh and PC. •
From the December 1999 issue of
GravenStein , newsletter of the
GravenStein Apple Users Group.
92 Washingto n Apple Pi Journal
Apple's Tech Exchange
iMac Website: Extraordinairel
by Beverly Smith
I
DISCOVERED a website a
few months ago, "iMac Technical
Exchange," which has been so
helpful I'm thinking of marrying it. I
h ave gone from a quivering mass of
FEAR of the computer to a person
who knows very little, but now
knows where to go for help. But seriously, folks, this website is one where
all those with an iMac actually HELP
each other.
There are quite a few people there
who have real expertise. And when and
if there has not been a solution reached
or some detail left out, an Apple Tech
steps in and completes the solution.
There is very little chit-chat, because it is stated quite clearly at the
beginning that this is a site for helping Apple people with their problems,
not a social club. I have seen instances
of people coming on to ba dmouth
poor service or a bad experience, and
either there will be no response or that
person will be reminded of the aim
of the site-to HELP.
At one point I noticed I had quite
a few questions stacking up there (as
anyone visiting the MACNJ Message
Board can imagine), and sent a request for a way to delete them, as I
didn' t want to be greedy and take up
so much room. The responses I got (3
or 4) were absolutely miraculous! The
tenor was that my problems were the
gold at the bottom of their panning
sieve. They loved to get my problems,
because it helped them build up the
Technical Library, which in turn saved
them time when they referred questions there for previous solutions. You
"I have gone from a quivering mass of FEAR of the
computer to a person who
knows very little, but now
knows where to go for
help."
can see why one would fall in love.
The site is divided into several sections and I cannot give them all, but
will try to list them as succinctly as I
can.
The website address begins with:
http:/ /www.apple.com/support/
That screen opens to a lis t of several
choices:
(1) G4, (2) iMac, (3) iBook, (4)
Laptop, (5) 05-9, (6) OX Server, (7)
Quicktime.
There are troubleshooting links:
1- Getting Started, 2- Solving Problems, 3- Tech Exchange, 4- Subscribe
Then there is 5- Get Help which,
when clicked on, gives a long menu,
6- Connect to- (a long menu), 7- Update my- (a long menu), 8- Service
Info- (long menu), and 9- Select other
support information- (long menu),
plus a multi-lingual choice.
You, of course, need to go there
and see how you want to use it, even
if you have an older Mac or Apple.
Good luck. I know you will enjoy
this site, and get as much positive
feedback as I have gotten. •
From the November 1999 issue of
MacNJ Window , newsletter of the
Macintosh Associa tion of Central
New Jersey,
March I April 2000
Mac Interface
The Cool Way To Get Jump
Started On Your Mac
by Barbara Passman
P:
ETER DE'ARMOND cre-
ted a CD for beginning to intermediate Mac users to show how
to use the capabilities which are built
into the Mac OS for greater efficiency
and functionality." Although there are
many great (third party) products out
there" to" tweak some functions of the
Mac interface" says De' Armond, he
decided to create a CD tool so that
many more persons could have the
same tutorials he has given to individuals, teaching them how to use
what comes 'Native' with the Mac. He
says that his work, "Maclnterface," is
a tool to encourage folks to customize their Mac. He bases his lessons on
OS 8.1 and 8.5.
I was interested in seeing what a
CD tutorial of this sort offers. It is inexpensive, costing about the same as
a good Mac book. The CD is as close
to a one-to-one session from a teacher
as any tool can be. Maclnterface
teaches tried and true ideas to help a
new or intermediate user understand
and use many features of the Mac; and
probably answers some of the questions a newer user is uncomfortable
about asking. It offers valuable lessons, helping Mac users avoid root directories and desktops cluttered with
duplicate files, mysterious folders and
the like.
De'Armond used MovieWorks
(copyright 1999 by Interactive Solutions, Inc.) to create his animated
teaching application. The CD contains
a READ ME and the program consists
of a Main Menu with an introductory
March I April 2000
"I was interested in
seeing what a CD
tutorial of this sort
offers. It is inexpensive, costing about
the same as a good
Mac book. The CD is
as close to a one-toone session from a
teacher as any tool
can be."
chapter and twelve succinct lessons.
While Mr. De' Armond teaches a lesson, the user sees a desktop on which
the changes are made or things occur
exactly as the lesson describes. A lesson can be paused at any point so that
the user can go to his own desktop to
re-enact what was just taught. The
user can readily re-enter Maclnterface
and replay the chapter to hear and see,
once again, how things are done. The
READ ME clearly explains and encourages the user to stop and start and
practice along the way. The appearance of the Main Menu resembles a
tape player, with pause, play, rewind
and quit rectangular buttons along
the bottom of the window. Amini con-
trol window with a slider is at the top
of all windows in all lessons. Pushing the slider is the easy way to move
forward in a lesson or to return to an
earlier portion of the lesson.
The Introduction explains how to
navigate through Maclnterface, reiterating the READ ME file.
The first lesson, "Organizing your
Hard Drive," teaches about drag and
drop, sizing windows, and creating
and renaming folders. "Saving and
Organizing Files" continues showing
the hierarchical filing system and
navigating through it. It shows how
to save files in specific places and
demonstrates using the Save Dialogue box in applications, to create
folders and to save documents into a
file folder of choice. The chapter also
shows how to put folders inside of
folders. "Using Appearance Controls"
talks about how icons are arranged,
how they can be sized and how to use
the Appearance Manager control
panel to customize a Mac's aesthetic
look. "Creating and Using Folder
Tabs" follows next, showing how to
make a folder become a tab at the bottom of the window and how to use
this feature to advantage. In this chapter, using aliases is explained and suggestions are made about naming the
alias. "Customizing the Apple Menu"
fittingly comes next, showing a key
way in which the aliases are and can
be used on the Mac. Two important
tips are given in this chapter; placing
an alias of the hard drive and of the
Apple Menu file itself in the Apple
Menu folder.
Following chapters deal with
more shortcuts to make Mac use more
efficient and pleasant. "Using the Application Switcher" shows how to tear
off and make a convenient palette
from the standard Application
Switcher in the upper right side of the
Menu bar. "Using the Control Strip"
shows how to use the strip and the
parent control panel of the same
name. "Using Contextual Menus"
emphasizes the summarizing feature
Washington Apple Pi Journal 93
in Contextual Menus and introduces
the Clipboard feature of the Mac, reiterating the cut and paste features of
the OS.
"Using Sherlock" shows how to
search the Internet using the search
engine of the same name included in
Mac OS 8.5 and higher. "Finding Lost
Files" shows how to search the Mac
hard drive. Several Find parameters
are mentioned and the Indexing feature, which affords Find by Content,
is introduced in this chapter.
"Navigating through Folders" is
next, a meatier chapter than those preceding it. The little arrow tabs, to the
left of a folder name, are pointed out.
Similar tips given here include showing how to view the contents of a
folder or window in various ways, by
double clicking the column heading
or using the inversion arrows. Mr.
De' Armond reviews how to set the
views for all folders and how to close
or open windows efficiently via keyboard commands. Key tips taught are
Command Key + W, holding down
the Option key while closing an open
window, holding down the Option
key while opening a folder, moving
up and down a hierarchical menu,
using Contextual Menus, and moving
a folder into another folder by dragging the name of the active folder
from its title bar.
The last chapter, "OS Help
Menu," covers the Help components
and introduces the concepts of
hyperlink and AppleScripts and encourages the user to consult the Help
feature built into the OS.
The tutorial program is organized
logically, giving the user good information and knowledge to become
proficient with his or her Mac.
The animation is comfortable. All
key tips are illustrated right in front
of the user on his computer monitor.
It is nice to see this sophistication in
something created by a single knowledgeable person, not the product of a
resource-rich software publishing
company.
94 Washington Apple Pi Journal
I would, therefore, like to give unqualified recommendation to
Maclnterface but I cannot do that.
Despite all its good points, I
found the presentation boring and,
therefore, hard to attend to its lessons.
Mr. De' Armand's voice is pleasing
but his tone never varies.
Maclnterface often seems no more
than a recording of a book about the
Mac. Furthermore, he speaks quickly,
"This CD and application seek to meet
the needs of someone
who can turn on and
run her Mac but has a
poor grasp of the
built-in capabilities or
features which can
make working with it
easier and more
fun ... "
too quickly in many places for users
to readily absorb his message. Yes, we
are invited and told to pause and rewind and replay sections as we go
along. It is easy to do this but it is also
disruptive. I wish that pauses were
built into the program. How much
more the impact if, at key parts, the
presentation had built in pauses during which the user is directed to view
and practice on his own hard drive!
Instead, the presentation proceeds
relentlessly and the material becomes
overwhelming in the meatier chapters
in which much is mentioned or discussed too quickly. The chapters
about working with the hierarchical
filing system, at the beginning and
end of the program, especially, need
practice pauses built in to enhance the
learning process.
This CD and application seek to
meet the needs of someone who can
tum on and run her Mac but has a
poor grasp of the built-in capabilities
or features which can make working
with it easier and more fun. The CD
brings good lessons at a low cost to
this user. Despite the boring qualities
it won't hurt anyone who tries it. All
of us learn differently so the benefit
of Maclnterface will be variable.
Many, though not all users, will come
away with new skills, although it may
take several times hearing the material to absorb the information in order to use it.
Maclnterface, copyright 1999,
published by Peter De'Armond. The
CD is available for $39.95 {through a
secure server) at <http:/ I
www.macinterface.com>
Barbara
Passman
<[email protected]> is the
Vice-President ofTRoU. •
From the January 2000 issue of
MACtropolis, newsletter of The Rest
of Us (TRoU) Chicago Mac User
Group.
Check the ads
for Computer
Camp, and
for the up•
•
coming
trip
to
MacWorltl.
March I April 2000
IT
1
'::~~'~r,;;~1l~!\i~'$1 '1\I.:~ ,:.'••ir~i.:w.Et~ii1~~~-1f~
Classified advertisements can be placed by mailing copy to the business office of
Washington Apple Pi, Ltd., 12022 Parklawn Drive, Rockville, MD 20852. Be sure
to include your WAP membership number and indicate area code~ wi~ your
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Services
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at
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March I April 2000
WAP membership. WAP Members
must identify themselves as such and
then deduct $5 from the regular $39
(printed ClarisWorks Journal) or $34
(electronic ClarisWorks Journal)
membership dues when they join or
renew. Contact the ClarisWorks User~ Group directly at Box 701010, Plymouth, MI 48170; toll-free at (888) 781CWUG; Fax: (734) 454-1965; Email:
<[email protected]> or web site
http:/ /www.cwug.org.
Helo Wanted
-Looking for Apple Lovers Staffing Alternatives is looking for Mac
Help Desk Specialists for GE Information Services in Gaithersburg, MD.
Day and evening shifts available.
Macintosh (OS 7.6.1 or above) knowledge and bachelors degree required
for this support position. Please call
Carolyn at 301-340-5457 or e-mail
your
resume
to
[email protected].
-Bethesda Computers & Networks
is looking for a person knowledgeable on the Macintosh for a Sales and
Software Support Position. General
knowledge of Macintosh hardware
is perferred but will train a qualified
applicant in this area. Please contact
Ejaz at <[email protected]> or 301-6525108.
Mac Consultants and Techs
Wanted
-Join our team of dedicated and pro-
fessional Mac lovers as we serve the
technology needs of businesses
throughout metropolitan Washington, DC. Send us an e-mail describing yourself and what you WANT to
do every day. Then tell us about your
professional qualifications, specifically your experience helping people
with technology and troubleshooting
Macs in a networked environment.
Send
your
resume
to
<[email protected]>. Visit
our website at www.uptimeweb.com
to learn more about Uptime Computer Services, Inc.
Helo Needed
-Volunteers Needed: Recording for
the Blind and Dyslexic of Metro
Washington is looking for volunteers
who can read technical books (currently working on data structures in
c++ for example). We are located in
Chevy Chase at the Friendshiip
Heights Metro, 5225 Wisconsin Ave.,
NW (at Jennifer Street- across from
Mazza Gallery). We need computer
literate folks willing to volunteer for
2 hours a week, to help read textbooks
onto tape. The tapes are used by student borrowers. Interested folks can
come by on Wednesday evening,
January 20th, between 6-8pm for an
open house orientation. Otherwise,
they can call Laurel after 3pm at 202244-8990 and get more info. Evening
sessions start at 5:30 and 7pm, Monday-Thursday. Thanks again for your
help and best wishes.
Remember to
VOTE!!
Ballot in next journal.
Washington Apple Pi Journal 95
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96 Washington Apple Pi Journal
March I April 2000
Pi Fillings-The CD: Version 6
Version 6 is your companion CD if you are using Mac OS 8.x through 9.0. This one-
stop updater will save you hours of downloading time. Here is where you will find the updates and drivers to all your Macintosh peripherals whether the device is USB, Firewire, or Old
Faithful. We include updates to Java, Open Transport, ColorSync, and PowerMac G3/4 ROMs.
In addition, we freshened the essential Internet tools and utilities; added more large updates
for the more popular applications; and of course, put in some interesting diversions. In all,
more than a billion bytes worth of stufffills our latest offering in the Pi Fillings-The CD series.
HOW tO get it•
Pi Fillings-the CD, version 6 is available for $ 1O
• at Pi General Meetings, or for $ 12 via snail mail.
Call the Pi office at (301) 984-0300 and place an order, or send a check to the Pi office.
You can also place an order over the Internet by visiting the Pi store at: http://store.wap.org